Brussels, 10/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Pascal Lamy will be travelling to Saudi Arabia on 21 April and then on to Bahrain to join the President of the Council, Anna Lindh, at the EU/Gulf States Cooperation Council in Manama on 23 April. The General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday adopted positions on several points on the agenda of the Gulf meeting: a) the implementation of the cooperation agreement; b) plans to start negotiating a Free Trade Zone; c) human rights; d) weapons of mass destruction; e) the Middle East Peace Process; and n update on the situation in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and relations with these countries. Since no proposals were forthcoming from the European Commission, the Council was unable to approve a negotiating mandate for the talks on a future Free Trade Zone (in deadlock to date since the Gulf States do not have a customs union). The Gulf States have, however, agreed that they will be levying a common customs duty as from 2005 and the negotiations with the EU could kick off as soon as the Council has approved a mandate. The Commission is expected to approve a proposal on Wednesday (written procedure). As is always the case for Association Agreements, this proposal would be divided into economic aspects with the Free Trade Zone covering services as required by the WTO, and purely political issues such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law. On the trade front, the most tricky issues are likely to be bauxite, insurance and banking.
During his visit, Mr Lamy is expected (as is his wont) to raise issues concerning the future relaunch of a WTO trade round.