UAE FTA Update

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Mr Mark Vaile, today announced the Australian Government would give close consideration to the Gulf Co-operation Council's (GCC) wish to negotiate a GCC wide Free Trade Agreement.

This follows a decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that the Australian bilateral FTA negotiations with them be incorporated into the GCC negotiations.

The GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

"The GCC is an important and growing market for Australia with exports of goods worth $4.1 billion in 2005," Mr Vaile said.

The GCC as a whole is a major market for Australian exports, roughly equivalent in size to other key markets such as the United Kingdom, Singapore or Thailand.

"This is the largest export market for Australian passenger motor vehicles. The total value of motor vehicle exports to the GCC was about $2 billion in 2005. It is also a key market for agricultural products, metal and a growing range of services.

"I remain committed to expanding our strong and growing economic and trade relations with the region as a whole and we will look closely at using the good progress we made in the UAE negotiations to advance our export interests through a possible GCC wide agreement," Mr Vaile said.

To this end Mr Vaile said he had instructed officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to undertake an analysis of the economic and trade implications of an FTA with the GCC as a whole.

"The Australian Government will continue to work to foster the trade and investment relationship between Australia and the Gulf region to assist Australian exporters to capture an increasing share of these opportunities," Mr Vaile said.

Contact: Mr Vaile's Office 02 6277 7420, Departmental 02 6261 1555, Austrade 02 9390 2701