| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front Economy |
| Gulf States Agree to Begin Common Market From 2008 |
| 2007-12-06 |
| Six Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will form a common market from the beginning of next year, said Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah, head of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Citizens and businesses of the GCC, which also includes Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, will have equal economic rights throughout the region, al-Attiyah told delegates after a meeting of heads of state in Doha, Qatar, today. GCC citizens, for example, will be able to buy stocks in listed companies within the bloc under the same conditions, he said. GCC countries eliminated tariffs between members' exports in 2003. "The common market aims at creating a unified market in which GCC citizens can benefit from valuable economic opportunities in the Gulf," al-Attiyah said. "The agreement will open the way for intra-Gulf and foreign investment in the region and increase the usage of available resources in the Gulf countries." A common market is one of the pre-conditions for the creation of a Gulf single currency. The 2010 deadline for the joint currency has come under pressure in the last 12 months as the project has fallen behind schedule. Somewhat like I predicted. However, I suspect it cannot work without democracy and transparency. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 I thought they already had one. It's called OPEC. What the hell else would we wanna buy from them? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-12-06 16:25 |
| #5 They should have done this (minus Saudi Arabia) in the 80s to give them more balance against Iraq, Iran (with their populace) and Saudi Arabia (with their wackiness and oil wealth). I imagine such a common market would also be a military alliance similar to NATO, and might have some sort of Foreign Legion to give it some kind of controllable military beyond an Air Force. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-12-06 16:22 |
| #4 I'll trade you some sand for some oil. No I'LL trade YOU some sand for some oil. |
| Posted by: jds 2007-12-06 13:35 |
| #3 A MECM, to some degree based on the European model, if it worked, could spell the end of a lot of the potential trouble from the ME. The European idea was based to a great extent less on free trade, than on the idea that European homogenization would result in no more major wars. In a way, it attempted to standardize democracy and replace dictatorship around Europe with this as a primary goal. Why this would be potentially good in the ME, is because it would be an secular *alternative* to a Sultanate, Pan-Islamism or other theocracy, ethnic Pan-Arabism, or other opportunistic mass movement. Ironically, Baathism was originally supposed to be a secular alternative to these things, but it got caught up in the Cold War and socialism, which ruined it. Had it been a more European style social-democratic movement balanced with Muslim-democratic; a sort-of reflection of European SD and CD movements, it might have worked. But at the time, the Middle East wasn't ready for it. So this is what eventually a MECM might evolve into: a few relatively weak constitutional monarchs, and a dual political structure between Social Democrats and Muslim Democrats. This would appeal to most people in the ME, and from there, open borders and free trade would evolve. In turn, it would end a lot of the extremism, poverty, and a lot of the other social ills that not only plague the ME, but gravitate outwards to annoy the rest of the world. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-12-06 13:06 |
| #2 I cannot fathom what a "common market" means when the only people who work in any of these countries are non-resident aliens. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-12-06 09:22 |
| #1 PAYVAND > MOUD/IRAN MAKES TWELVE PROPOSALS TO PGCC. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-12-06 04:26 |