H.E. Mr. Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Minister of Commerce and Industry, chaired on Thursday November 14, 2019, the Qatari delegation that participated in the GCC’s Trade Cooperation Committee 58th meeting and the Industrial Cooperation Committee 46th meeting held in Oman.
The events were preceded by preparatory meetings that brought together the Undersecretaries of the Ministries of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, 31 October 2019 in Riyadh.
H.E. and the accompanying delegation also participated in the consultative meeting between the Ministers of Commerce and Industry and the heads of the federations of GCC chambers, as well as the meeting that was organized with entrepreneurs on the sidelines of the meetings of the Commercial and Industrial Cooperation Committees on November 13, 2019 in Muscat.
The agenda of the Trade Cooperation Committee’s meeting featured a number of topics of common interest including issues relating to trade, challenges facing GCC countries and mechanism to bolster joint GCC action in the field of trade.
Ministers also discussed measures to encourage entrepreneurial and innovative initiatives undertaken by small and medium sized enterprises across GCC States as well as efforts to bolster the contribution of these enterprises to economic development while touching on the GCC’s position regarding WTO-related issues.
During the meeting, Ministers hailed the organization of the annual entrepreneurship forum in Dhofar, Muscat in 2020.
In its 46th meeting, the Industrial Cooperation Committee discussed a number of issues of interest to the GCC’s industrial sector, particularly the GCC Common Industrial law, the difficulties that the steel manufacturing sector is facing, and the free flow of goods of national origin between GCC countries without custom or non-custom related restrictions.
The committee also touched on the role of the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting, its contribution to industrial development and its 2019 activities and accomplishments.
The meeting’s agenda also featured discussions on the member states’ implementation of the rules for giving priority in government procurement to national products in GCC states. The committee also discussed the evaluation report on industrial conferences and related exhibitions.
On another note, Ministers discussed the amendments introduced to exempt industrial inputs from customs duties and developments relating to investigations into harmful practices, appeals and customs duties.
H.E. Mr. Al-Kuwari headed the Qatari delegation at the first meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Standardization Affairs, which discussed the topics on the agenda of the meeting.
