The GCC’s petrochemical exports will hit a record high this year with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Bali Package set to come into effect, according to the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA)
The trade agreement would make it easier for developing countries to trade with the developed world, the GPCA said.
The GPCA statement, however, did not specify the expected volume of petrochemical exports for 2014 from the GCC countries, which comprise Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
According to the latest data, the GCC exported 172mn cubic metres of petrochemicals in 2012, equivalent to 75 per cent of its output and valued at US$52.7bn, a Platts report said.
The Bali Package, which resulted from the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Bali, Indonesia, in early December 2013, creates binding commitments among member countries to increase customs efficiency and revenue collection by reducing bureaucratic procedures.
Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, GPCA’s secretary general, said, “The WTO’s deal on trade facilitation, if implemented in its true spirit, will reduce the cost of all GCC petrochemicals exports, thus easing the flow of goods across borders and cutting delays in international shipments, especially in the countries where Gulf chemical exporters have encountered difficulties in the past.”
Export barriers against the GCC’s petrochemicals will ease only in the second half of the year, as the Bali Package is set to be ratified by the WTO General Council by July 2014, the GPCA statement added.
