At least two million jobs could be created across the Arab world if export barriers are lifted to help stimulate stagnant regional trade, says the head of a major global trade organisation.
At the moment, most Arab countries trade far more with Europe, the United States and Asian countries than they do with each other. Only 11 per cent of Arab non-oil exports are within the region, one of the lowest rates of intra-regional trade in the world, says a report by the International Trade Centre (ITC).
"Arab states have taken away tariff barriers and put in non-tariff barriers instead. Most of them are significant and quite discriminatory in the way they are constructed," said Patricia Francis, the executive director of the ITC, a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.
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