The government of Qatar ordered shops in their country to stop selling products from Saudi Arabia and UAE. Qatar Government Communications Office (GCO) claimed they were just trying to protect the safety of their consumers.
“Products originating from blockading states, which as a result of the blockade cannot pass the GCC customs territory, has to undergo proper import inspections and customs procedures.”
“Qatar conducts its trade policy in accordance with all of its multilateral and bilateral agreements.”
Doha Officials ordered the immediate stripping off of Saudi products from the shelves of the shops coming from the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. They also assigned inspectors to visit the stores and make sure that they comply with the directive.
Saudi dairy goods will also be prohibited from entering Qatar through a third country.
Looking back, it was on the 5th of June last year when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut their relationship with Qatar for believing that the latter was allegedly financing terrorist groups and was having close ties with Iran.
It was last year when they imposed a trade and diplomatic boycott on Qatar. It was believed that Qatar’s decision to ban products from Saudi is a form of regime change in Doha.
The countries also previously isolated Qatar who then turned to Gulf neighbors for food imports such as Turkey, Morocco and Iran.
Meanwhile, many imports are believed to have entered Qatar from boycotting countries through the ports in Kuwait and Oman by using third parties.
