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Abu Dhabi: The UAE on Monday demanded the adoption of its proposal to exempt unprocessed or partly processed raw materials, other than agricultural products, from custom duties by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The list of products includes non-ferric metals such as raw aluminium, as well as chemical and natural materials such as marble and granite.
Last year, the GCC's Financial and Economic Cooperation Committee assigned the council's general secretariat to compile a list of the recommended exempt products within the GCC, and the volume of the council's exports of such products to be presented before the GCC Customs Union Committee (CUC).
This would help the group to decide on a unified stance at the WTO.
So far, only Qatar has submitted the necessary data and statistics, while the UAE is seeking the full adoption of its initiative by the GCC as a step towards the implementation on a global level through the WTO.
The UAE's demand was presented at the 42nd meeting of the CUC in Riyadh yesterday, where GCC representatives had convened, seeking to overcome the obstacles facing the full and smooth implementation of the Customs Unions.
Task force
In its efforts to resolve pending issues and speed up the process, the CUC has formed a task force to tackle the obstacles, a major concern among which is the increasing rate of smuggled alcoholic beverages into Saudi Arabia.
"The UAE is seeking to resolve the pending issues through the discussions of the task force, and the adoption of the subsequent recommendations by CUC," the UAE Federal Customs Authority (FCA) said in a statement.
The UAE is also seeking a better mechanism to identify the origins of imported goods, especially for commodities imported without the related certificate of origin.
"One of the remaining obstacles is to finalise the issues related to classifying restricted or banned goods throughout the GCC countries," said Saeed Al Mari, FCA's deputy director general.
Other pending issues include services fees collected at border checkpoints, members' obligations within regional and international contexts, such as the WTO, and the Islamic Conference Organisation (ICO).
The CUC meeting concludes on Tuesday in the Saudi capital.
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