Saudi Arabia signs an agreement to monitor Chinese goods
China slices a big share of US exports to Saudi Arabia
Violators will be blacklisted
According to The Middle East News Agency, Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment (MIC) signed an agreement with the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and set a schedule for the convention programme of cooperation, which aims to monitor the goods coming from China to comply with the approved Saudi standards and specifications.
Saudi Arabian news agencies said that the agreement aims at communicating with the Chinese authorities to trace the sources of the violating goods and issue a blacklist that includes manufacturers, importers or exporters who violate the Saudi standards and specifications.
An executive programme was signed to set a timeframe for implementing the terms of the agreement, which includes that MIC establish an electronic database and link it to concerned agencies in the Kingdom, such as the Saudi General Customs Authority and Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality. This database will be linked to the Chines electronic system C-Rapex at AQSIQ, in addition to gathering the systems and related specifications in one database available to all parties.
The executive programme includes supervision of labouratories that test the products, issue certificates to ensure its authentication and list the results in the database.
Furthermore, the programme includes terms to ensure that the exchanged products accompanied by conformity certificates issued by the country of origin, and come from a known source to the Kingdom.
Under the terms of the programme, the Chinese authorities will inspect violating companies seized by the Saudi authorities, penalize them, and share the result with the Kingdom.
The Program authorized the Saudi authorities to communicate with commercial and industrial institutions of China to ensure their understanding of the latest required standards in Saudi Arabia.
It is worthy of mention that a concerned team will be formed in six months and the database will be built in eight months.
The agreement is among 15 agreements and memorandums of understanding that were signed between China and Saudi Arabia during Prince Mohamed Bin Salman Al-Saud and Crown Prince’s visit to China.
Saudi – Chinese trade
According to Saudi economic analysis, China and Saudi Arabia trade is estimated at more than SAR 1,79 trillion over the past 10 years, divided as SAR 1207bn of exports and SAR 587,1m of imports.
Over the last year, Saudi-Chinese trade hit SAR 184.5bn, divided as SAR 92,1bn of exports and SAR 92,4bn of imports.
Previous figures imply that China has trumped the US to become the largest exporter of Saudi goods since 2015. America was on the top of exporters from Saudi Arabia.
Chinese exports from Saudi Arabia were valued at SAR 92,1bn, as against US exports worth SAR 80,5bn. For the first time since 1999, Saudi Arabia witnesses a deficit in its balance of trade with China; Saudi-Chinese balance of trade hit SAR 329m in 2015, compared to SAR 73.6bn during 2014. Saudi-Chinese trade includes several products and goods; statistics say that Mobile devices topped the Saudi imports from China as they seize 12 per cent of the kingdom’s total imports.
As for computers, they seize 5 per cent of the kingdom’s total imports and air conditions seize 0.9 per cent whereas cars come last by 0.4 per cent.
Saudi exports to China are mainly in the oil and its derivatives sector as they seize 80 per cent of China’s imports from the kingdom, followed by 4 per cent of ethylene derivatives, 2.5 per cent of polyethylene and 1.9 per cent of hydrocarbon and its derivatives.
It is worthy to note that Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is the world’s largest petrochemical company in regard to its market value; it exports $2bn of petrochemicals to China annually.
