Members of the Financial and Economic Cooperation Committee and the Trade Cooperation Committee of the GCC countries discussed the final report on the technical status of the free trade agreement negotiations between the GCC and China.
The meeting completes the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz regarding enhancing joint action.
The virtual joint meeting was headed by the Omani Finance Minister Sultan bin Salim al-Habsi, who is also the Chairman of the current session, and included Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, Commerce Minister Majid al-Qasabi, the Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Commerce, Finance, and Economy of the GCC countries, and the GCC Secretary General.
During the meeting, the ministers reviewed many issues related to enhancing financial and economic cooperation between the GCC countries.
The committee was briefed on the recommendations of the undersecretaries' committee and the developments followed up by the General Secretariat.
Jadaan touched on the Saudi efforts to enhance joint Gulf action during its presidency of the previous session, stressing the Kingdom's support for Oman in its presidency of the current session.
He pointed out the need to double efforts to complete the remaining steps to implement the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques regarding promoting joint Gulf action in a way that meets the aspirations of the Gulf leaders.
Members of the Financial and Economic Cooperation Committee and the Trade Cooperation Committee reviewed the steps to establish the customs union before the end of 2024, according to the timetable approved by the committee.
They also followed up on completing the full implementation of the Gulf Common Market, according to the action plan for the period 2022-2024, in the performance of the decision of the 43rd GCC Supreme Council.
Concerning the final report on the technical status of the negotiations of the free trade agreement between the GCC and China, the officials reviewed different points of view in preparation for submitting them to the Ministerial Council regarding the powers of the negotiating team and its mechanisms.
