ABSTRACT
The Gulf Arabs oil trade with the Asian Pacific economies began in the early 1950s, when Japanese oil companies were scouring the globe for resources to fuel Japans rapid post-war industrialization programme. China's total hydrocarbon trade with the Gulf Arab monarchies is substantially less than Japans, mainly due to its domestic gas reserves. The non-hydrocarbon trade that takes place between the Gulf Arab monarchies and Asia Pacific is on a much smaller scale than the massive oil and gas exports and imports. Alongside the booming hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon trades, the relationship between the Gulf Arab monarchies and Asia Pacific has been greatly enhanced by a substantial flow of investments between the two regions. The construction and labor companies in the Asian Pacific countries have been winning contracts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, with the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) having supplied laborers for projects in Kuwait.
