Tuesday 19 / November / 2024
Muscat: Oman has fulfilled the 100 per cent of the requirements of the Free Trade Agreement(FTA), becoming one of the first countries of the region to completely fulfil its obligations related to the agreement which has been ratified so far by 164 countries of the world, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) recently announced on its website.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the FTA of the WTO, which the Sultanate ratified on February 22, 2017, was one of the most important international agreements aimed at making trade between countries of the world easy and facilitating free movement of goods at their borders. It reflected in the readiness of rules, regulations, and laws as well as business environment of the Sultanate which helped it in keeping pace with global economic developments.
Mahmoud bin Amer Al Hattali, Director General of Trade Organisations and Commercial Relations at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that a national task force had been formed for the FTA of the WTO. It comprises a number of government organisations, including Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Royal Oman Police (Directorate General of Customs, Ministry of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Ministry of Health, Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ithraa) and Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The task force was formed according to the decision taken in the Council of Ministers session No. 9/2014, which was held on April 1, 2014. The team carried out its duty of reviewing all the procedures included in the FTA approved by the WTO and prepared lists of the Sultanate’s obligations in this agreement. He said that the agreement is aimed at making trade exchange easy.
It clarifies and improves provisions of the GATT 1994, particularly of its articles 5, 8, 10. These articles are related to freedom of transit, fees and procedures, transparency, required documents, simplification of procedures and removing unnecessary administrative obstacles associated with the process of transporting of goods imposed by countries to ensure compliance with their rules applied at the time of import and export and during transit.
This is to increase and accelerate commodity movement, release, and clearance, Al Hattali added. Defined procedures The FTA requires from the member states to determine the procedures included in it and are concerned with the implementation of its provisions.
This is by classifying them into three categories as follows: Category A which includes the procedures which will be applied immediately after the agreement come into force. The category B includes the procedures which the state will apply after a transitional period, and category C includes the procedures through which the state indicates that it is in need of assistance, support and capacity building. Al Hattali said that in stage one the national task force of the FTA held a series of meetings which helped it accomplishing tasks in virous stages.
First state after the formation of the task force started with reviewing the results of the special workshop held for assessing the needs for the implementation of the FTA. The workshop was hosted by the Sultanate in cooperation with the WTO between January 19 and 23, 2014. It was participated by all countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
During this stage, the objective was to determine the procedures which the Sultanate could adopt from the Category (A / 1) as the Sultanate's procedures were ready to be applied soon coming the agreement into force. In light of the results of this stage, the Sultanate submitted its first notification to the WTO, which included the procedures for Category A / 1 approved by the organization according to the serial number: WT / PCTF / N / OMN / 1 on August 14, 2014. This notification also had the information that the Sultanate was ready to implement 21 out of 41 procedures required to be adhered under the FTA.This notification was not different from the conclusions of the workshop.
In the second stage (ratification of the FTA and its entry into force), he said that the task force followed the procedures for the Sultanate’s ratification of the FTA. It was part of its work to prepare lists of the Sultanate’s obligations in this agreement.
This is because the ratification of the agreement was considered as notification of the WTO. It is mandatory for the member states of the organisation to ratify this agreement until the legal quorum is reached by two-thirds in the WTO. It will make the agreement part of the agreements of the organisation.
These efforts culminated in the Sultanate’s ratification of the agreement according to Royal Decree No. 36/2017 ratifying the protocol to amend the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation. The agreement actually entered into force on February 22, 2017, and the Sultanate, by depositing the instrument of accession with 3 other countries on February 22, 2017, contributed to the completion of the quorum required for this agreement to enter into force.
As for the third phase (amendment of the Sultanate's notification of the first category A / 1) is concerned it is with the developments which have taken place in the Sultanate in the form of government's support to the logistics sector as one of the economic sectors included in the ninth five-year plan 2016-2020 and launch of the economic diversification program “Tanfeeth” as well as “Bayan” system which has helped in bringing qualitative transformation in making the trade easy. It is also alogn the line of establishing Omani logistics group Asyad.
All these efforts were to help achieve the objectives of the FTA, said Al-Hatthali. He pointed out that when the national task force reviewed the first list sent by the WTO it realised that some of the procedures have already been implement practically. The number of implemented procedures increased from 21 to 32.
Now in this stage just nine procedures remained which the task force put in the list B. This category was of the procedures which the state wanted in the transition stage before their implementation. After taking approval of the minister of commerce and industry as he chaired the national task force, the WTO was given new notice regarding first list. The notification of the Sultanate was issued under the serial number: WT / PCTF / OMN / Add. 1 of February 21, 2017.
The Director General of the Trade Organisations and Commercial Relations pointed out that the fourth stage was about determining the lists of obligations in categories B and C in accordance with the requirements of the FTA. The agreement has made it clear that the countries which have ratified the agreement would classify the procedures into three categories, so that the categories B and C are determined a year after the agreement entry into force. The task force completed its meetings by reviewing the remaining 9 procedures.
According to Al Hattali, for the fifth stage, it was about completing the review of the lists of obligations in categories B and C. This is because the task force has completed review of 9 procedures to ensure the Sultanate’s readiness to implement these measures and determine the transitional period which precedes the start of their implementation.
Based on the conclusion of the discussions which highlighted the efforts and development plans undertaken by the Directorate General of Customs in cooperation with the members of the team, it became clear to the task force that some of the 9 procedures which were put in the category B have become effective in the Sultanate except for giving the opportunity to provide observations and information. The Director General of the Trade Organisations and Commercial Relations said that the sixth stage was the last stage, which was about completion of the Sultanate’s implementation of the remaining three procedures in January 2020 to become 100 per cent applied. He said that the task force completed the review of the remaining three procedures which were applied in the Sultanate in January 2020, as per the Sultanate’s notification to the organisation. On February 26, 2020 the Sultanate’s office at the WTO in Geneva represented the country at the meeting held on FTA. He said that the delegation of the United States of expressed its thanks to the Sultanate for the notification it submitted to the WTO on March 22 2019. It termed the notification as clear and comprehensive. The Secretariat of the WTO made a visual presentation that made it clear that the Sultanate was among the 6 countries which has implemented the agreement by 100 per cent.
