POSSIBLE TRADE PACT MOOTED

BRITAIN has approached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf countries on a possible trade pact after leaving the EU, the UAE economy minister said yesterday. Such agreements can take years to negotiate, Sultan bin Saeed alMansouri said at the World Government Summit in Dubai. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, but it has yet to find an agreement acceptable to both Brussels and UK lawmakers, raising the prospect of a disorderly exit that could damage the world’s fifth-largest economy. The UK was “looking forward” to a free-trade agreement with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), Liam Fox, the UK state secretary for international trade, said during a visit to Dubai. The GCC comprises the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. In 2017, trade between the UAE and UK totalled £17.5 billion (R307.46bn), up 12.3 percent from 2016, according to official figures. By 2020, the UK government wants that number to increase to about £25bn. | Reuters