This work represents a socio-legal inquiry into the development of KSA SMEs and their interconnections with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreements, examining on one level, KSA SMEs within the Saudi economy in relation to relevant KSA legislative, administrative and organisational affairs. The study found the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a positive attitude towards supporting and developing SMEs through public and private initiatives. However, shortcomings, mainly in the form of burdensome financial technicalities, were identified in the country’s efforts to promote SMEs. On another level, 93 KSA exporting SMEs were surveyed, by quantitatively evaluating the effects on the sector caused by the Kingdom’s accession to the WTO and qualitatively examining the actual effects of WTO rules on such firms. It was found that although the SMEs that were surveyed with regard to the Kingdom’s accession to the WTO have generally agreed that such accession was beneficial, a majority recognised that certain WTO related obstacles exist, while another high percentage of surveyed SMEs raised concerns about standards and specification issues within international trade. Moreover, the thesis attempted a classification and hypothetical analysis of identified standards issues discovered while the survey was conducted in relation to the WTO standards Agreements and relevant dispute resolution cases. The work concludes by providing possible suggestions in the form of legal remedies to help KSA exporting SMEs to overcome their difficulties. This consists mainly in the harmonisation of standards and technical regulations and their mutual recognition through the application of the equivalence principle in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and in particular within the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) Agreement.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:540451 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Shoaib, Saleh M. S. |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=165811 |
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