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LONDON: The UK is launching a significant trade deal with the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states, the government announced.
The agreement targets mutual investment, tariff reductions, and knowledge transfer.
UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan was on Wednesday due to meet GCC Secretary-General Dr. Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajjraf in Riyadh as well as representatives from the six GCC member countries, the Financial Times reported.
The GCC states — ��������Ƶ, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE — form the UK’s seventh-largest export market. Annual trade between the two sides is worth more than $40 billion.
The UK government said that Gulf demand for international products and services was forecasted to surge about 35 percent to almost $1 billion by 2035.
Trevelyan said: “We are looking to do a really comprehensive, ambitious, and modern, forward-thinking free trade agreement. I don’t want to limit it to goods … we will be creating the footprint for all our sectors.
“This trade deal has the potential to support jobs from Dover to Doha, growing our economy at home, building vital green industries, and supplying innovative services to the Gulf.”
Al-Hajjraf welcomed the talks and highlighted the council’s interest in strengthening economic and commercial relations with the UK.
He said that the deal was a result of consultations and working groups that were launched after a meeting with Trevelyan in London last year.
The agreement, he added, would represent a “major turning point in the historical and strategic GCC British relations.”
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al-Zeyoudi said that the talks presented a “big opportunity” to boost ties “with a trusted trading partner, further diversify supply chains, and accelerate knowledge transfer.”
Trevelyan pointed out that the Gulf states would benefit from expanded access to UK markets, adding that clean energy technology was likely to be a priority given Gulf countries’ efforts toward carbon footprint reductions.
The securing of a GCC-wide deal was the first priority of the UK, she said, but the deal would function as a “starting point” for Gulf countries who “want to go further.”
UK government figures show that there were around 600 GCC-owned businesses in the UK in 2019, which created about 25,000 jobs.
If successful, the UK-GCC deal would increase bilateral trade by at least 16 percent, injecting almost $2 billion per year into the UK economy.