Malaysia Pushing For FTA With Gulf States

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

21 January 2009

The Malaysian government has expressed its desire to pursue the implementation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), it has been announced.

The call for an FTA between the two was made by the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a recent business forum entitled 'Malaysia-Bahrain Business Opportunities,' where he commented that a pact of such nature between the two regions would greatly improve the opportunities available to Malaysian exporters and investors.

According to the Prime Minister, the implementation of an FTA would enable Malaysia to "be used as a platform to penetrate the ASEAN market and the other lucrative markets of our FTA partners such as Japan, China and Korea."

The PM then went on to explain that "current bilateral trade and investment between Malaysia and the Gulf region is, unfortunately, still small and an FTA will have a significant impact in improving the ties", adding that:

“Malaysia made the proposal through the Gulf Cooperation Council secretariat, and this has received strong support from the business communities in Malaysia and the region."

At present, the GCC is made up of six states: Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

It is not yet known how the two sides will progress negotiations towards a trade agreement.

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