The Second Round of the Negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement Talks (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

January 17, 2007

The second round of the negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement between Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), composed of six countries - the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - will be held in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) on January 21 (Sun) and 22 (Mon).
Mr. Masaharu Kohno, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Director-General (DG), Middle Eastern and African Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other co-chairs, Deputy-DG level officials from ministries concerned, will participate in the negotiations on the Japanese side. The GCC delegation will be headed by Dr. Hamad Bin Sulayman al-Bazai, General Coordinator of the Negotiation, Head of the Delegation and concurrently Deputy Minister of Finance for Economic Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
At the second round of the negotiations, there will be a broad array of exchange of views and consultations on such fields as trade in goods and services, rules of origin, customs procedures, aiming at reaching an early conclusion of the negotiations.

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