Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources confirmed that it is working to protect local industries from unfair competition by enacting policies that empower them and increase their competitiveness.
The ministry stated that this is being done without contradicting the Kingdom's obligations arising from its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Gulf and international agreements, in order to create a fair competitive environment that would attract industrial investments.
Industrial experts, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, stressed the need to implement Saudi standards for all imports entering the kingdom.
They noted that unfair competition exists in several aspects that include flooding local markets with goods at lower prices than the country of origin, an unjustified increase in imports, support provided by the exporting countries’ governments, and non-conformity of specifications and standards.
Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to its national industry due to the important economic weight it represents in raising the value of the kingdom’s GDP and meeting the needs of the local market.
“The industrial sector is one of the pillars of the Saudi economy,” CEO of the Saudi Development and Innovation Group (SADIG) Abdulrahman al-Obeid told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Obeid added that the Saudi plan for economic transformation, dubbed Kingdom Vision 2030, is reliant on the development of the industrial sector, especially that it possesses all the factors needed to build an integrated and interconnected industry at the global level.
“Although the Kingdom's markets have recently been open to imports from various countries, many of them do not rise in quality and do not comply with Saudi specifications, which causes a great challenge and unfair competition for quality national products,” al-Obeid explained.
“From this standpoint, there remains a necessity to keep pace with the industrial strategy to build a strong industrial economy,” he affirmed.
It is worth noting that the Saudi Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry is working to secure an environment of fair competition by applying several tools in cooperation and coordination with various government agencies.
The ministry indicated that it works through committees and teams and in coordination with relevant government agencies.
The tools to protect against unfair competition are represented in the application of technical regulations and standard specifications for a number of affected industries, raising the customs tariff for a number of goods to the customs ceilings that are bound by WTO, and the application of the principle of reciprocity on the Kingdom's imports from countries that impose measures or precautionary measures against Saudi exports, in addition to the application of import licenses.
The ministry also emphasized that it is in the process of implementing other protection tools, in coordination with the concerned government entities, to protect the national industry from harmful practices, and to activate the available tools that would contribute to encouraging national industries.
