Brussels / Geneva, 01/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and Saudi Arabia signed, on Sunday in Jeddah, a bilateral agreement on the conditions for this country's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). According to Pascal Lamy, the European Commissioner responsible for common trade policy, this "ambitious" agreement concluded after one month of intensive talks, is a major breakthrough in the process that Arabia has still to complete with other trading partners and which will be resumed at multilateral level, during the month of October.
The Commissioner commented that Saudi Arabia's decision to show proof of ambition in its trading relations with its key partners is a sign that can but please the international community. He mainly welcomed its decision to come into conformity with all WTO rules between now and the accession date and to eliminate a number of obstacles to international trade such as bans on importing certain food products and the double price applied to gas products. Saudi Arabia also abolished the legislation that excludes foreign companies from the energy sector and, among the commitments for market access that it made with Europeans (and hence all the other members of the WTO), there is also: - the average level of tariffs that Saudi Arabia promises to apply to industrial goods (up to 12%), and also to farm products; - commitments on services, including for telecommunications, press agencies, banks, insurance, transport, courier services, construction, distribution, environment and the temporary movement of professional people (IV mode); - more flexible cross-border provisions and provisions for setting up business. The spokesperson for the European Commission said in a press release on Monday that these commitments would guarantee better access to the market and more predictable conditions for conducting operations of European service providers.