Brussels, 16/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and the six countries of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) met for virtually all of last week to try once again to conclude the final chapters of their negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA).
There will be room for satisfaction this time. Trade Commission Peter Mandelson welcomed the “constructive and positive atmosphere of this weeks's negotiations”. “I believe that we are now in a position to resolve final issues and complete an EU-Gulf Cooperation Council free trade agreement,” he said.
There was a similar expression of satisfaction in different GCC countries. The Secretary General of the organisation, Abderrahman al-Attiyah, said in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh that several chapters had been completed and that he hoped the final text would be signed in April, on the sidelines of the annual session of the joint Cooperation Council and the European Union (the Cooperation Council covers cooperation in the framework of the cooperation agreement of June 1988 which the free trade agreement, under negotiation since 1989, but with many interruptions, will complete). In Rome, where she met her counterpart Massimo d'Alema, the Arab Emirates economy minister Sheikha Lubna Al-Qassimi also spoke of her hope of a rapid conclusion of talks.
In Brussels, the European Commission could not be drawn on which specific points were still up for discussion and which had already been settled, saying only it was an “overall package”: according to the usual phrase, “Nothing is settled until everything is settled”. Nevertheless, EUROPE believes that the chapters still open are on services, access to markets and public contracts. An Omani under-secretary told his country's press agency that the crucial issue was services. According to other sources, there is difficulty in finding agreement on the right of establishment for bank services and levels of equity financing of companies resulting from capital projects. Malik Bin Abdullah Al Hinai, Omani under-secretary for the economy, regretted that the EU was making demands of the Gulf states, which “are also not met by certain European countries, such as the acquisition by foreign investors of 100 per cent ownership of power companies. (fb)