Notification of the GCC to the WTO as a Customs Union:The Whys and Hows

Citation: Bashar H. Malkawi (2015) Notification of the GCC to the WTO as a Customs Union:The Whys and Hows. Global Trade and Customs Journal (RSS)
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Summary

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is generally regarded as a success story for economic integration in Arab countries. The idea of regional integration gained ground by signing the GCC Charter. It envisioned a closer economic relationship between Member States. Although economic integration among GCC Member States is an ambitious step in the right direction, there are challenges ahead.One of the GCC challenges has been in the context of ‘dual notifications’ leading to political and legal frictions among World Trade Organization (WTO) members. The issue of ‘dual notification’ is not only a transparency issue, but also substantive and legal in nature.