ISDS Case Map
GCC
After several years of being blocked, the signing of the EU-GCC FTA seems imminent. At the same time, the US is launching an ambitious proposal for a US-Middle East Free Trade Area in 2013, with Bahrain being the last country to adhere to a list that already includes Morocco and Jordan.
The US hopes free trade agreements with Bahrain and other neighbours of Saudi Arabia will strengthen the Gulf Co-operation Council -- not break it up, a US trade official said.
As a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizen, it is extremely disappointing to note that the controversy surrounding Saudi Arabia's objections to the Bahrain-US free trade agreement (FTA) is threatening the future of the GCC economic integration.
Saudi Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf said the Kingdom will be forced to take measures, including legal action, to protect its interests from being harmed by unilateral free trade agreements concluded by Gulf Cooperation Council states with other countries.
Saudi Arabia threatened yesterday to impose customs duties on foreign goods imported duty-free through Gulf Arab countries, intensifying a Saudi-Bahraini row over a trade agreement with the United States.
The US-Bahrain deal undermines the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) as a collective body.
TALKS are pushing ahead for individual free trade agreements with the US for all the GCC states, it was declared yesterday.
Bahrain once again defended its free trade agreement with the United States.
The Saudi-Bahraini dispute over Manama's free trade pact with Washington that overshadowed a summit of Gulf Arab states could derail their bid for economic integration, economists said yesterday.
A free trade deal between the United States and the tiny Persian Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain is causing friction with other Arab states, which say the pact could weaken their economic bloc ahead of future trade talks with Washington.
