MANAMA, 30 November 2004 — Oman said yesterday it was too soon to say whether it would seek a free trade agreement with the United States after differences emerged within Gulf Arab states over Bahrain’s pact with Washington.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said two weeks ago the United States would begin free trade talks with Oman and its Gulf neighbor the United Arab Emirates as part of efforts to create a Middle East and North African free trade zone by 2013.
The planned talks follow a similar deal between Washington and Bahrain in September which alarmed other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states — particularly Saudi Arabia — who believe it violates their regional economic agreements.
“There are some differences ... And I think we’d better first of all see what the situation will be (at a GCC meeting in Bahrain next month),” Oman’s Economy Minister Ahmad ibn Abdul-Nabi Mekki said.
“... When we sat with Zoellick we were talking in general about many things, about other possibilities — not only this. I cannot really specifically say that we are going to discuss the agreement,” Mekki told reporters in Bahrain. Mekki said he did not want to elaborate “until the situation gets clearer within the GCC”.
Bahrain has defended its free trade pact with the United States, which has yet to come into force, saying it was reached after consultation with its neighbors and it does not grant the United States preferential status above GCC states. The deal abolished external tariffs between the two countries, even though Bahrain has signed up to a GCC customs union which fixed tariffs at 5 percent.
A Gulf official said the access granted to US banking and services industries violates a 2001 GCC economic agreement prohibiting members from giving preferential treatment to countries outside the six-nation partnership. He said all GCC countries had also agreed to collective negotiations with trading partners rather than bilateral talks.
