ID :
166083
Sun, 03/06/2011 - 09:15
Auther :

2011 to see finalizing GCC customs union

(KUNA) - Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali said Saturday that 2011 will see the completion of the Customs Union that will bind together the Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Al-Shimali hailed -- in an exclusive statement to KUNA -- at the close of the 88th extraordinary meeting of the financial and economic committee of GCC Arab states the meeting's cordial atmosphere that led to reaching unanimous decisions.
He added that the meeting also saw an agreement on distributing the revenues of the customs goods to all GCC Arab states according to ratios that will be determined later on.
Further, Al-Shimali said director generals of GCC Customs Unions will hold a meeting on April 2 to implement some changes, and to express their views on the coterminous border checkpoints linking th eir countries.
Al-Shimali said that results of the upcoming meeting of the chiefs of GCC Customs Unions will be submitted to the consultative periodical summit of the Supreme Council of GCC leaders due in Riyadh next May.
GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah said at his address before the meeting today that, "what has been agreed upon during the meeting will be submitted to the GCC ministerial council in preparation for reviewing it by the upcoming session of the GCC Supreme Council." Al-Attiyah asserted that the main goal behind the Customs Union -- which GCC states seek to carry out since 2003 -- is to eliminate customs and non-customs obstacles to ease the movement of national and foreign commodities among the GCC member states along with keeping control unchanged in relation to security and quarantine aspects in implementation of the the economic agreement signed among the GCC Arab states.
He concluded by stressing the paramount importance of GCC Customs Union, especially under such delicate conditions which the Arab world undergoes as such customs merger will help push the economic intergration among GCC Arab states to a new high, and maximize the advantages gained by the GCC citizens.



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