Palestine, Turkey-GCC FTA and the Abraham Re-Alliance

Strategically, the gulf is pivoting away from Israel's IMEC to Turkey's Development Road, the FTA paves the way for the pivot.

Turkey and the GCC have officially initiated their FTA negotiations. This came just days after Netanyahu announced the Abraham Alliance, a year after the UAE-Israel FTA went into effect, and months after the UAE and Qatar joined the Development Road in partnership with Iraq and Turkey, which is promoted as the alternative to the India-Middle East Economic Corridors (IMEC) that is centred on Israel becoming the region's trade hub.

According to estimates, by liberalising trade in goods and services and investment, a GCC-Turkey FTA could potentially create one of the world’s largest FTAs, worth $2.4 trillion. The first round aimed to agree on the principles on which the negotiations will proceed, exchange information and data, discuss challenges and opportunities, and build trust. This round of negotiations was concluded and included discussions on trade in goods and services, investment, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, and sanitary and phytosanitary standards. The next negotiation round is expected to occur sometime before the end of this year, and it is anticipated to conclude with an agreement. While free trade negotiations between Turkey and individual Gulf states have happened in the past and have been ongoing for more than 15 years, this round of negotiations is different and much more critical. Why?