CAIRO, April 7 (KUNA) -- The joint Arab committee tasked with drafting a new treaty on mutual tax exemption and customs tariffs concluded its fifth meeting on Thursday with an agreement to amend the Tunis treaty of 1979.
The meeting, held at the Arab League HQ., gathered representatives of the civil aviation authorities and finance ministries of 16 of the League's 22 member states, including Kuwait.
The conferees appreciated Kuwait's legal experience in the field of international conventions regulating the tax charges on air transport services, said supervisor of the international treaties dept. of Kuwait's Finance Ministry Omar Al-Wilayati.
"In recognition of Kuwait's long experience in this field, the conferees elected Kuwait to the presidency of this committee for four successive terms," he told KUNA at the end of the meeting.
Al-Wilayati noted that the committee is scheduled to meet again in Cairo next October to review the final blueprint of the agreement as a prelude to presenting it to the minister-level meeting of the Arab Economic and Social Council for final endorsement.
He added that the meeting discussed suggestions raised by the 16 state parties to the convention regarding the planned mutual tax and tariff exemptions for air carriers in the customs territories of these countries.
The potential signatories of the new convention are Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Mauritania and Sudan. (end) mfm.gb