Olufunlola Rotimi

Olufunlola Rotimi is a lawyer and independent legal researcher specialising in international trade and public international law. She received an LLB from the University of Birmingham, U.K. and an LLM from the prestigious International Legal Studies Programme of the American University, Washington College of Law in D.C. She is a successful entrepreneur who has worked with several organizations such as NECA’s Network for Entrepreneurial Women in skills acquisition and entrepreneurial training for women. Olufunlola is a member of both the Association of Women in International Trade and the Washington International Trade Association. Her passion for international trade stems from an appreciation of it as a fundamental tool for development.

Papers Published in World Economics:

Rules of Origin as Trade Barriers

Author: Olufunlola Rotimi

On 2 July 2021 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia clarified, and by so doing fundamentally changed, the rules determining when goods can be said to be a national product originating from within Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In other words, it changed its rules of origin (RoO) on GCC-manufactured goods. For an item to qualify as a national product originating from within the GCC, a minimum of 40% must be added to the item’s value during production carried out within the GCC; and there must also be a minimum of 25% local workforce in the manufacturing company. Saudi Arabia is a member of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the GCC and thus has legal obligations pertaining to RoO under the WTO’s multilateral trading system as well as the regional trading system of the GCC. This article analyses Saudi Arabia’s legal obligations under the WTO and GCC frameworks.

Read Full Paper >