{"id":9203,"date":"2023-09-29T22:48:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T22:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/pakistan-inks-preliminary-deal-on-free-trade-agreement-with-gulf-cooperation-council\/"},"modified":"2023-09-29T22:48:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T22:48:32","slug":"pakistan-inks-preliminary-deal-on-free-trade-agreement-with-gulf-cooperation-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pakistan-inks-preliminary-deal-on-free-trade-agreement-with-gulf-cooperation-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan inks preliminary deal on free trade agreement with Gulf Cooperation Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pakistan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have concluded the final round of negotiations and inked a preliminary deal on a free trade agreement (FTA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it emerged on Friday.<\/p>\n

Pakistan and the GCC finalised the FTA on Thursday after the final round of talks was held from September 26-28, 2023 at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Commerce today.<\/p>\n

Interim Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz and GCC Secretary General Jassem Mohamed Albudaiwi signed the joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth parties looked forward to the expeditious signing, ratification, and implementation of the agreement, which will mark a new chapter in the economic relations between our parties,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

It will be followed by an internal administrative and approval process before the signing and entry into force of the agreement.<\/p>\n

The GCC secretary general said the preliminary deal was a \u201crecognition of the importance of strengthening trade relations and economic cooperation with countries and international blocs\u201d, according to the Saudi Press Agency<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He noted that the \u201chistoric economic agreement\u201d represented an \u201cimportant turning point\u201d in cooperation between the two sides and would contribute to growth and prosperity in a way that \u201cserves the common interests of both sides, as it emphasises the vital importance of close cooperation between countries to strengthen economic relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ejaz said it was a \u201csignificant development\u201d since the FTA is the GCC\u2019s first with any country since 2009 and marks a milestone in both sides\u2019 economic cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have excellent relations with all the countries of the GCC, and this FTA will ensure that our economic ties are commensurate with these excellent relations,\u201d the commerce minister said.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has been seeking an FTA with the GCC since at least 2005<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In January last year, the two sides finalised the Joint Action Plan for Strategic Dialogue (2022-26)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The plan, in line with a memorandum of understanding on strategic dialogue, provided for an institutional approach to deepen cooperation in various fields, including political, security, trade and investment, agricultural and food security, transportation, energy, environment, health, culture and education.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have concluded the final round of negotiations and inked a preliminary deal on a free trade agreement (FTA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it emerged on Friday. Pakistan and the GCC finalised the FTA on Thursday after the final round of talks was held from September 26-28, 2023 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/291645005688fb2.jpg?r=165900","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}