The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) finance ministers have agreed to recommend that all customs duties be scrapped on reinforced iron bars and cement in trade between member countries, GCC Secretary General Abdul Rahman Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said on Saturday. Speaking to the media, Al-Attiyah said the GCC finance ministers agreed unanimously that there should be no duties on these commodities between member states. The agreement has been included in the recommendations of the GCC finance ministers in their meeting in Riyadh Saturday. The recommendations will be submitted to the Consultative Meeting of the GCC leaders in Riyadh on Tuesday. Al-Attiyah also said all issues pertaining to economic and financial integration between the member states will be reviewed by the GCC leaders at their upcoming summit. Another GCC official said Gulf countries will abolish a 5 percent import duty within one to two months to ease a supply strain that has been mostly felt in Saudi Arabia. “There is consensus among GCC countries about this proposal. It will be approved without any problem but it will probably take a month or two for it to be implemented,” an official from the GCC secretariat told Reuters before the start of the meeting. In a related development, King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, met Saturday with Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah briefed the King on the preparations being made for the 12th annual Consultative Meeting which will be attended by the GCC leaders in Riyadh Tuesday. Al-Attiyah listened to the King's views on the need for a unified GCC effort which will work in the interests of the region's people. Present were Prince Mit'eb Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Executive Affairs and Prince Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Adviser to the King.
