On October 25, the 8th round of negotiation of China-GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council ) FTA was held in Beijing. Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen and the Coordinator of GCC and the Deputy Finance Minister of Saudi Arabia led delegations and attended the negotiation. During the 3-day negotiation, the two parties had in-depth discussion on service trade, investment, e-commerce and the remaining issues of trade in goods.

On January 19, 2016, during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Saudi Arabia, China and GCC announced to restart China-GCC FTA negotiation which had been suspended for 6 years. According to the consensus, the two parties have held the 6th and the 7th round of negotiations in February and May respectively in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Guangzhou, China.