Gulf Arab states angered by Bahrain's decision to sign up to a free-trade pact with the United States say it should back away from the deal and honour a regional agreement, a Gulf official said yesterday. Washington and Bahrain signed a deal in September abolishing external tariffs, giving it trade advantages over fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states which had signed a customs union fixing tariffs at 5 per cent. Foreign and finance ministers of the six-nation AGCC will discuss the deal, which is yet to come into force, at a meeting early next month after finance ministers failed to resolve the issue in Jeddah in October. "The Bahrain-US agreement is in clear violation of the AGCC economic agreement, whether in doing away with the AGCC customs union common tariff or in granting the US more favourable treatment than it grants AGCC member states," said the official involved in the talks, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
| "Why would they deal directly with the world's superpower when they could deal with pissants like ... um, ... oh never mind." |
The official said all member states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain — were also committed to collective rather than bilateral negotiations with trade partners. A 2001 Gulf Arab regional agreement prohibits members from "granting preferential treatment exceeding that granted to member states" or from concluding any deal which violates any part of the agreement. "Everyone, including Bahrain, agrees that this is what is required from the treaty, but political opportunity pressures (on Bahrain) proved to be too inviting strong," the official said. |