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The GCC Secretary-General has confirmed that tariffs on steel and cement imports into the GCC countries will be abolished within one to two months.
At a meeting of finance ministers on Saturday, Mr Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah told reporters that the 5% import duty imposed by the GCC customs union would be scrapped as part a wider plan to ease economic integration in the region.
“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," Al-Attiyah told Reuters before the start of the meeting.
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An ongoing strain on the supply of steel particularly has been mostly felt in Saudi Arabia, where increases in demand due to massive state spending pushed up prices in the second half of last year.
The situation was made worse last month by pricing contract reform by the world’s biggest miners for iron ore – a key ingredient in steel-making along with coking coal and scrap.
After the meeting, Al-Attiyah confirmed that leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the UAE would be discussing a wider plan to improve economic integration at their bi-yearly consultative summit in Riyadh on Tuesday (May 11).
He stressed the need for more financial cooperation between the GCC countries, and hinted that the most important matters still to be discussed included issues around the Gulf Common Market and the Customs Union.
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FEATURED COMMENT
The removal of Import Duty for GCC will have a severe effect on the local manufacturing industries who convert semis to