Update 5: Australia-GCC FTA Negotiations
The Fourth Round of FTA negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was held in Muscat, Oman from 31 May to 2 June 2009.
Negotiations at this round focussed on services, investment, intellectual property, government procurement, competition policy, rules of origin as well as legal and institutional issues. Australia agreed in advance of the round to defer negotiations on other goods related aspects of the negotiations following advice from the GCC that it would not be in a position to table a goods market access offer at this round.
Only modest progress was achieved in the negotiation of services text. Both sides took the opportunity to further explain their respective positions and agreed to reflect further intersessionally on areas of possible convergence ahead of the next round of negotiations. Market access issues were also discussed by the parties, the first such discussion since 2007, and the parties agreed to table revised market access offers ahead of the next round of negotiations.
Progress on investment continued to be constrained by fundamental differences in the approach preferred by the parties. Both Australia and the GCC agreed to give further consideration to the other's preferred approach intersessionally, with a view to reengaging on investment at the next round of talks.
On government procurement good progress was made in advancing the text but a small number of key elements remain to be resolved before negotiations can move to the market access phase. A detailed exchange of views on how intellectual property rights should be reflected in the FTA revealed considerable differences in our respective approaches. On competition policy, negotiations focussed on creating a consolidated text.
While there were no negotiations on the goods text or on goods market access, both sides acknowledged that there was value in proceeding with negotiations on rules of origin, which still required a considerable amount of work, and which could be progressed independently of negotiations on other goods-related issues. Solid progress was made but negotiations revealed a number of fundamental differences.
On legal issues, good progress was made on the dispute settlement and institutional framework provisions and there are now consolidated texts on both issues. This positive progress notwithstanding, there are still a number of issues on which there is no agreement, such as how to address the question of an accession clause.
Both sides agreed to work intersessionally in a range of areas of the FTA in order to facilitate negotiations at the next round. The timing of the next round is yet to be determined and will depend largely on the ability of the GCC to table a comprehensive goods market access offer so that negotiations on goods, a key element of the negotiations, can resume.
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