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Arabia
Saudi to deal with all WTO members after accession
2005-09-13
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would deal with all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after its anticipated accession to the organization. The brief comment by Trade and Industry Minister Hashem Yamani followed a US statement that Saudi Arabia had agreed to allow trade with Israel as part of a key deal with Washington setting the stage for Riyadh to join the WTO. “The kingdom will deal with all WTO member states when it joins the organization, in keeping with WTO agreements,” Yamani told the official SPA news agency.
And then his lips fell off.
Yamani, who heads the Saudi team to accession talks, did not mention Israel, but the United States said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to open up the country to trade with the Jewish state, which remains subject to a formal boycott by many Arab countries.

The US statement, released after Riyadh and Washington signed their trade deal, said the agreement overcomes one obstacle in that Saudi Arabia confirmed that it will allow trade with all WTO members, including Israel, despite the Arab boycott. Yamani later said that his oil-rich country expects to join the WTO by the end of the year following the conclusion of the deal with Washington.

Yamani told SPA on Monday that “the secondary and tertiary boycott (of Israel) had lapsed” following a cabinet decision earlier this year which was based on a resolution of a 1993 summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is a member. He did not elaborate.

The indirect boycott by Arab states of third-country firms doing business with Israel largely lapsed with the launch of the Middle East peace process in 1991. On Sunday, Saudi newspapers had quoted Yamani as saying that Saudi Arabia would not give up the boycott of Israel.
"Trade with the Jooos? Pshaw!"
Posted by:Steve White

#1  "Today, I settle all Family biusness."
-- The Godfather
Posted by: mojo   2005-09-13 10:52  

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