With the recent easing of the inter-Gulf crisis, the unified march towards progress is firmly back on track. Now, then would be the time to explore other avenues of coordinated efforts and which could receive the green signal at the GCC Summit to be held in Doha on December 8.

This would mean that the Gulf states have moved on to a higher stage of integration, which would enable them to deal with the many challenges they could face in coming years. In addition to the all-important political and security coordination, economic issues will top the agenda, so that further gains can made on the already remarkable progress in implementing bloc-wide agreements.

Among the upcoming ones is an agreement on the full implementation of the unified customs tariff — or the Customs Union — as of January 1, 2015, a few days after the conclusion of the Gulf summit. This is an important step in the GCC’s drive to intensify efforts to complete the rest of the clauses framed in the GCC Common Market. (There has been talk about the possibility of extending the implementation period as the final approval is expected at next week’s summit.)

To demonstrate some aspects of the importance of the Customs Union, it is necessary to refer that the inter-GCC trade remained at around 6 per cent of the bloc’s overall trade for two decades before the partial implementation of the Customs Union regulation in 2003. Since then, inter-GCC trade has risen to 9 per cent of the total, making for an impressive development in expanding commercial ties between member states.

Let’s take the UAE’s trade with the rest of GCC countries as an exemplar. Figures from the Ministry of Economy show its trade between with the other GCC bloc members totalled Dh96.4 billion ($26.2 billion) in 2013 compared to 2012’s Dh80.7 billion ($22 billion), a growth of 19.5 per cent.

If the Gulf’s leaders agree to fully implement the Customs Union as of January 1, inter-GCC trade will see another quantum leap that would logically lead to a single trade area with no customs barriers or boundaries. The full implementation, among other things, would mean the adoption of a ‘Single Point of Entry’ into the GCC states from any country, which allows the smooth flow of goods after passing through the regular control points. This would greatly facilitate the movement of goods and services and pave the way for the completion of the rest of the requirements for the GCC Common Market.

On the other hand, the full implementation of the Customs Union will give the GCC states more bargaining power in the setting of global trade relations. This would in turn help Gulf states negotiate better terms and achieve moral gains, more so as they are currently engaged in new rounds of negotiations with many major trading partners such as China and the European Union to set up free trade pacts with them.

In addition, there are other areas of cooperation and economic integration that still need to be completed, particularly in banking and financial services and in the unification of economic policies to pave the way towards an integrated Gulf economy, which will have quite some influence.

Gulf-wide economic coordination has become extremely vita for both businesses and individuals as it offers a relatively big market that allows the six GCC nations to develop their non-oil economic sectors.

This will help diversify sources of income, develop commercial exchange and facilitate the movement of capital and private sector investments, including small investments in and between Gulf markets. It would be for the greater public interest and lead to significant gains for all GCC countries.

Dr Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert and specialist in economic and social development in the UAE and the GCC countries.