Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The General Authority for Foreign Trade (GAFT), led by the Saudi negotiating team's Farid Al-Asali, headed the team participating in the second round of negotiations on the free trade agreement between the GCC countries and Indonesia.

The talks are being held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the GCC in Riyadh during February 3-6.

The Saudi negotiating team works to supervise and follow up on the progress of trade negotiations to ensure their compatibility with Saudi Arabia’s trade objectives and policies, participate in trade negotiations to include Riyadh's negotiating positions, and coordinate with countries with the same or similar orientations in international trade.

The team consists of 9 technical teams (goods, services, investment, general texts and provisions, e-commerce, intellectual property, government procurement, rules of origin, and economic evaluation).

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These teams, which consists of representatives from 46 government agencies, work to prepare and coordinate Saudi Arabia’s negotiating positions and views on initiatives and proposals in the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements, and submit the necessary reports to the Saudi negotiating team in this regard.

The volume of trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia during 2024 till the end of the third quarter amounted to about $5 billion, Mineral products and organic chemicals were the most prominent Saudi exports to Indonesia, while cars and their parts, and animal or vegetable fats and oils were the most prominent Indonesian imports to the country.