GCC - Turkey Free Trade Agreement expected this year: Şimşek

[caption id="attachment_818" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Finance ministers of Bahrain and Turkey sign bilateral agreement in Manama- BNA"][/caption]

A free trade agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Turkey will be signed before the end of this year, Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, said.

The minister told reporters in Manama that negotiations on the free trade agreement have been going on for almost four years and expressed confidence that trade in the region would benefit from the deal.

Şimşek who arrived on Monday in Manama to co-chair the meeting of Joint Economic Commission (JEC) has been discussing with Bahraini leaders business issues, global economic developments as well as ways to boost trade and investments between the two countries.

According to Turkish media, trade volume between Turkey and Bahrain increased to $404 million in 2008, up from $72 million in 2004.

Şimşek has also stressed the significance of the development of a preferential trade system for Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries, Turkish daily Today's Zaman reported on Thursday.

"The minister said the organization would finalize the project by the end of this year. The parties have been working on a preferential trade system, which envisages a transition to a three-step tax reduction system among Muslim countries," the paper said.

The plan requires the approval of at least 10 member states in order to be launched.

In November, Turkish President Abdullah Gül urged the leaders of the OIC member-states to do "whatever is required to complete the ratification of a preferential trade agreement that aims to boost trade among Islamic countries and increase their interdependence."

“The effecting of the Protocol on the Preferential Tariff Scheme for TPS-OIC [PRETAS] will carry us further ahead in fostering trade among OIC members. In this sense, the rules of origin of PRETAS, which have already been accepted by four countries, must be ratified by at least six other countries so that they can be applied,” Gül told the Economy Summit held as part of the 25th session of the OIC Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC).

According to the action plan approved in 2005 by the OIC, the target for 2015 was set to increase trade volume among OIC countries to 20 percent of their overall foreign trade.