The dispute settlement between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the World Trade Organization (WTO) seems to have picked up the pace this month and hopes are high for further progress.

Earlier this month, Qatar secured a major victory, when the UAE withdrew its WTO complaint against Qatar for allegedly blocking the entry of Emirati products into Qatari markets. 

Now, Qatar's Ministry of Commerce and Industry have confirmed that a delegation from Qatar met this week with a UAE delegation before the WTO dispute settlement committee to further examine the lawsuit filed by Qatar against the UAE for imposing a series of arbitrary trade measures since the crisis erupted in June 2017. 

According to the statement, hearings of the case were held for three days at the WTO headquarters in Geneva.

The State of Qatar has welcomed the progress made in the dispute settlement procedures for the lawsuit filed against the UAE before the World Trade Organization. #QNA

— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) August 23, 2019

 

The statement explained that the lawsuit relates to the UAE's violations of the rights of Qatar under the many conventions, where Qatar challenges the UAE's discriminatory measures that prevent import and export from Qatar in addition to blocking goods crossing the UAE en route to and from Qatar.

Qatar also challenged the UAE's discriminatory measures that affect the ability of commercial service providers to compete with other companies.

The State of Qatar opposes the UAE's discriminatory measures, which negatively affect Qatari companies related to the protection of intellectual property rights, the statement added. 

All these illegal measures do not comply with the UAE's obligations as a member of the WTO, the statement highlighted. 

The statement noted that the UAE claimed that its actions are not protected by its right to protect national security interests.

It also claimed that all its measures were necessary to protect itself from the alleged security risks.

The statement stressed that the Qatari delegation strongly rejected the UAE's allegations, which have no basis in truth, as evidenced by the State of Qatar's distinguished regional and global economic and political relations.

It added that the delegation of the State of Qatar stressed that the UAE, instead of protecting its security interests as it claims, abuses the national security exception provided for in the WTO agreements by justifying such arbitrary measures.

Those measures are an attempt to pressurize Qatar to make concessions, which go against its national sovereignty, the statement pointed out. 

The statement added that Qatar will move ahead to follow up the lawsuit filed against the UAE's illegal measures and will not hesitate to claim its legal rights before all international bodies and platforms.

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Source: QNA