Federation of Chambers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will discuss next Thursday the completion of customs' unity requirements among the GCC countries, knowing that trade exchange has grown between the Gulf and the world to USD891.5 billion in 2016.
Abdul Rahim al-Naqi, Secretary General of the Federation of Chambers of GCC, stated that the federation is willing, in cooperation with Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), to hold a workshop on the efforts exerted to complete customs' unity requirements among the GCC countries.
Naqi added, in his statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, that the workshop will discuss the journey and achievements of custom federation as well as outcomes and requirements for full completion, and the assessment of the current customs regime.
Leaders of the federation approved in Muscat Summit in December 2001 the new economic agreement which resulted in the foundation of the customs' unity among the GCC countries that became active in the first of January 2003 to go in tandem with the comprehensive work of Gulf work.
Customs' unity is a significant step to reach a joint Gulf market and to support the negotiating forces of GCC countries in order to get better conditions with commercial partners in fields of trade and investment, said Naqi. He added that the unity led to a 9.3 percent growth in foreign trade of the GCC countries with the world during 2001-2016, reaching USD891.5 billion in 2016 compared to USD234.2 billion in 2001.
This would boost the foreign trade contribution of the GCC to the total world trade, reaching 2.7 percent in 2016 against 1.9 percent in 2001. Further, exports of GCC would grow 8.2 percent during that period while imports would increase around 10.9 percent.
