Source of Article: News Office of Ministry of Commerce   17:56 of March 3, 2016  

Type of Article: Original   Classification of Content: News

The 6th round China-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Zone Negotiation was conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from February 29 to March 3. WANG, Shouwen, Undersecretary of Ministry of Commerce of the P.R.C. and Buzz, general coordinator of the Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Negotiation as well as Vice Minister to the Treasury, attended the negotiation with their delegation respectively. During the four-day negotiation, both parties made in-depth exchanges in terms of service trade, investment, economic and technological cooperation as well as leftover problems concerning trade in goods etc and made positive progresses. Both parties agreed through consultation to carry out the 7th round China-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Negotiation in China in early May in a bid to speed up the progress of negotiation.

The 6th round negotiation is the first official negotiation conducted for the last six years since the suspension of the China-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Zone. This round of negotiation is carried out on the basis of the joint statement made by the Ministry of Commerce and the Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council on January 19 in terms of China-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Zone during the state visit of President LI, Jiping to Saudi Arabia . In this joint statement both China and the Gulf Cooperation Council announced resuming the free trade zone negotiation and put an end to the negotiation of trade in goods principally and materially. Both parties will strive to reach an all-sided package agreement in 2016.

The Chinese delegation has a total of more than twenty people, coming from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as well as the Government of Ningxia Autonomous Region. The delegation of the Gulf Cooperation Council comprises of more than forty peoples who come from six members of this Council-Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait-as well as the Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council.