GCC countries ’rush into US free trade agreements’
Gulf News (UAE) | 10/16/2006
GCC countries ’rush into US free trade agreements’
By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter
Dubai: The Dubai police chief said on Saturday that GCC countries that have signed bilateral free trade agreements with the United States "rushed into them". He stressed the need for trained and qualified negotiators to handle these agreements.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ free trade agreements (FTA) with the United States were the topic of discussion at a majlis, or gathering, hosted by Dubai police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, on Saturday.
Two GCC states, Bahrain and Oman, have signed FTAs with the United States despite strong opposition from regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which has claimed that these free trade agreements violate the GCC customs union.
Opponents of the FTAs have argued that the six GCC states should enter FTAs as a bloc, as they are negotiating with the European Union, China and Australia.
Lt Gen Dahi said that although it was in the US interest, and within its rights, to enter into bilateral these agreements with the GCC countries, it was "a mistake" which "broke GCC agreements".
"If the GCC went to [sign the FTA with the] United States as a bloc it would be much stronger", he said; consequently every GCC state that signed an FTA with the United States did so in a weaker position than its predecessor.
He called for a "youth uprising", saying that the GCC countries needed negotiators who had graduated from American universities and been integrated into American society "so they know how to negotiate with them".
Shaikh Khalid Bin Zayed Bin Saqr Al Nahyan, a UAE businessman, also questioned the benefits of the FTAs to GCC countries.
"Our exports are energy and energy related products, and those are the only ones that were left out of the FTA. So what are we negotiating?" he said.
He believes that the FTAs have "trapped" the GCC countries for 10 to 20 years.
High unemployment
Mohammad Bin Saleh, a member of the UAE negotiating team for the UAE-US FTA, defended the bilateral agreements, saying the UAE treated all its trading partners equally.
"The US has not only been signing FTAs with the GCC countries, but with all Arab countries, in line with the Bush administration’s aim of creating a Middle East free trade zone," he said, adding that all negotiators from the UAE were American university graduates "without exception".
