The 6th round of China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) FTA was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 29-March 3. The Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and the Chief Coordinator for GCC FTA negotiations and the Vice Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia led a delegation to attend the meeting. During the 4 days negotiation, the two sides held in-depth talks on issues concerning trade in service, investment, economic and technological cooperation and leftover issues on trade in goods, winning positive progress. The two sides agreed to hold the 7th round of negotiation on China-GCC FTA in China in early May in order to speed up the negotiations.

The 6th round of negotiation is the first official negotiation since the China-GCC FTA negotiations were halted six years ago. It’s held in accordance with the joint statement on China-GCC FTA Negotiations released by MOFCOM and GCC Secretariat on the sidelines of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Saudi Arabia on January 19. In a joint statement, the two sides announced to get back to the FTA negotiations, finish the negotiations on trade in goods substantially in principle and strive to reach a comprehensive package agreements in 2016.
　　
The Chinese delegation consisted of more than 20 people from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The Gulf Cooperation Council was made up of 40 people from Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain , Qatar, Kuwait and the Secretariat of GCC.