The key international trading factors between the European Union and Research Paper

The key international trading factors between the European Union and the Middle-Eastern countries. Specifically the countries in - Research Paper Example The European countries consists of religions like Roman Catholicism,  Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism,  Sunni Islam, Shia Islam,  Judaism and Buddhism. All these religions entities are different in their traditions, beliefs and ideologies. Catholic Christians are concentrated mainly in countries like, Italy, Vatican, France, Hungary, Poland etc. Turkey, Syria, Algeria like countries have Islam as the major religion Orthodox Christians are heavily populated in countries like, Russia, Ukraine, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece whereas Protestant Christians are staying in mainly in countries like Denmark, Germany, Finland, Sweden etc. Even amidst these extremely diverse cultural diversities, most of the European countries were able to assemble under the flag of EU for improving their bargaining power in the global trade activities. Common currency Euro is introduced in order to improve the integration process further. Middle East, especially the gulf countries are traditionally goof trading partners of Europe. In fact most of the gulf countries are engaged in more trade activities with the Europe than with any other region in the world. Majority of the gulf countries are Muslim countries and even then they have less political problems with the European world. On the other hand, America’s foreign policies and activities were watched suspiciously by the Gulf countries because of America’s unholy tie up with Israel. Thus most of the Middle Eastern countries took the EU as their best friend in trade activities. However, the trade activities between the gulf countries and the EU have witnessed lot of ups and downs in the recent times because of various reasons. This paper analyses the success and failures of EU’s trade tie ups with Middle East over the years. Relations between the European Union and the GCC date back to the mid-1980s. In 1989, the two organizations signed a cooperation agreement, which included a wide range of sectors: agricultu re, fisheries, industry, energy, sciences, technology, investment, environment, and trade. Over the years, dialogue between the EU and GCC has been characterized by ups and downs and has mainly focused on trade cooperation. During the 1990s, trade flows between the two blocks were actually very low, and only since 2001 they have began to intensify, thanks to the increase in oil prices rather than to the intensification of trade volumes. Negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) have been part of EU-GCC cooperation, but after 20 years, this goal is still elusive (Talbot, p.13) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are the major GCC countries which have strong trade tie ups with the Europe. These six countries formed a regional organization; The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) in May 1981. â€Å"The major objectives of this cooperation are to enhance coordination, integration and inter-connection among its Member States in di fferent spheres†(The EU & the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)). â€Å"All these six GCC countries currently benefit from preferential access to the EU market under the EU's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)†(Gulf region 2010). Even before the formulation of European Union,