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JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia : The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have postponed the implementation on Tuesday of a customs union due to disagreement over sharing tariff revenues and problems meeting World Trade Organisation rules, officials said.
But the council agreed on establishing an electronic clearing mechanism for settling customs duties between the GCC states -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Following late-night Monday meetings of the GCC's economic and foreign ministers in Jeddah, GCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah said there were still some outstanding differences on the customs union.
"We will not rush things and we will study and review at all stages," he told reporters.
Attiyah said they needed to develop mechanisms to ensure the smooth flow of goods between the countries under the proposed customs pact.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Sabah said the key problem in implementing the customs union was over the sharing of revenues.
"We agreed to work with the system as it exists now, and undertake an annual review, because the process is dynamic and not static," he said.
"We hope to overcome these obstacles through an electronic clearing house, an important step toward finalising the customs union."
The oil-rich members of the GCC first decided to implement a customs union in 2003, but tariff and protection issues have delayed it over the years.
Rules that are inconsistent with WTO standards also stood in the way of finalising the customs union, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said.
Meanwhile Attiyah said that implementation of the GCC monetary union is "actively progressing" and that the group is currently working to nominate a chief executive for it.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia signed a monetary union pact in December 2009, while the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest GCC economy, and Oman have declined to join as yet.
- AFP/ir
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