China's state media said on Tuesday the country will speed up talks on free trade agreements with six countries on the Arabian Peninsula members of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and begin trade negotiations with Israel next year.
Beijing seems to have accelerated efforts to sign such bilateral trade agreements. Zhang Shaogang, head of the Commerce Ministry’s international trade and economic affairs department, was quoted saying that the ministry has finished a feasibility study on launching free trade talks with Israel and hopes to sign a free trade area agreement in the next few years.
Israel runs a deep trade deficit with China. It imported some US$5.52 billion of Chinese goods in the first 11 months of 2014, against US$5.21 billion in 2013. Exports to China reached just US$2.59 billion, up from US$2.55 billion IN 2013.
