Muscat - Minister of Commerce Dr. Majid Abdullah Al-Qasabi headed the Kingdom’s delegation participating in the meetings of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Trade Cooperation Committee and Committee for Standardization Affairs in Muscat, Oman.

The 64th meeting of the GCC Trade Cooperation Committee was held in the presence of GCC ministers of commerce and industry and GCC Secretary General Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi.

The meeting addressed completing the implementation of the GCC Common Market and tackling the challenges faced by intra-trade between the GCC countries.

The participants also addressed the negotiations on free-trade agreements with other countries and international blocs, in addition to a number of economic topics.

Moreover, the meeting discussed a number of subjects on its agenda and reviewed the workflow of the Committee for Standardization Affairs.

In this regard, the participants affirmed the need for imported and exported products to comply with sound technical requirements in order to enhance the competitiveness of Gulf products.

They also highlighted the need for cooperation in various fields of standardization.

The commerce and industry ministers held a consultative meeting with the heads of the federations of the GCC chambers, where they discussed the opportunities to enhance joint Gulf work in the fields of business incubators, commercial franchising, and supply chains.

Dr. Al-Qasabi, who also is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, held bilateral meetings with Qatar’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani and Kuwait’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Mohammed Al-Aiban.