Pakistan to seek individual trade deals with UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman

Dubai - Bilateral negotiation to hopefully start within next 6-12 months, says Pakistani official

The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia and Oman, will be sought by Pakistan for individual trade deals, a Pakistani official said on Sunday, as talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council remain stalled.

The GCC, which includes those three countries plus Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, started free trade talks with Pakistan in 2004. It has not implemented a free trade deal since 2015.

Pakistani official Abdul Razak Dawood told Reuters on Sunday the South Asian nation hoped bilateral negotiations for preferential trade deals with the three Gulf Arab states would start in the next 6-12 months.

“We feel it is far better to do individual (deals) at the moment rather than with the GCC as a bloc,” he said in Dubai.

A preferential trade deal typically gives certain products preferential access such as by reducing or removing tariffs.

Dawood said the negotiations would cover a limited number of goods and would not be as comprehensive as a free trade agreement, though over time, the deals could be expanded if secured.

He did not say which goods Pakistan would seek to include.

“We were not expecting something like this to happen and that is the type of perception that we have to overcome,” Dawood said.