From July 19 to 22, 2006, the 4th session of the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Trade Negotiation Committee was held in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, Vice Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun led the Chinese delegation to take part in, including representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, China Customs and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. During the Negotiation, the two sides deeply discussed issues concerning China-GCC FTA goods trade such as market access, rules of origin, technical barrier to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measure, trade relief, foreign trade law and text of free trade agreement to further narrow the difference, and exchanged opinions on initial price of bilateral service trade.

GCC is a regional economic organization in gulf region, consisting of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Republic, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. The 6 members are important resources of oil for China, in recent years, the trade and economic relations between China and GCC members developed with a high speed. From 1999 to 2005, the average annual increase rate of China-GCC bilateral trade hit over 40%, in 2005, the import and export amounted to US$33.76 billion, up by 36.5% on a year-on-year basis. China exported US$13.765 billion to GCC countries and imported US$19.99 billion from them, up by 31.9% and 39.8% respectively. Regarding to investment, by the end of 2005, net overseas investment of China to GCC countries totally reached US$72.18 million, but GCC's investment in China amounted to US$714 million.

China-GCC FTA negotiation was launched in July 2004, and has been held successfully for 3 rounds by now.