The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Products Exhibition opened in Amman on Sunday, reported the Jordan Times newspaper.
Minister of Trade and Industry Wasif Azar said that the exhibition is a realisation of Arab aspirations, established during the late 1950s for a unified market.
The minister said that this vision of an Arab market has been achieved by the GCC, adding that inter-Arab free trade agreements such as those Jordan has with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and similar bilateral agreements with the European Union help to further such plans.
Azar said that hopefully by 2005, the Arab Free Trade Agreement would abolish all customs restrictions between Jordan and the Gulf states. The minister pointed out that approximately 50 percent of Jordan's foreign trade is with other Arab countries.
The minister expressed hopes for the creation of an Arab products exhibition to promote regional economic and industrial strengths, which could be held not just in Amman, but would move to other Arab cities.
Haidar Murad, the president of the Federation of the Jordanian Chambers of Commerce said that this exhibition is a step towards increasing Arab exhibitions.
The GCC Products Exhibition features companies from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates offering a variety of goods, including paper, insulation, fixtures, electrical products, paints, furniture, household appliances, ceramics, tiles, foodstuffs, as well as construction, light industrial and machinery companies. Also represented are bottling, canning, carton and airline companies, said the paper – Albawaba.com
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