UK optimistic about securing free trade deal with GCC, British minister says
The UK hopes to sign a free trade deal with the GCC soon, a British minister has said.
Kemi Badenoch, the country’s Business and Trade Secretary, said talks were going “very well” as she completed a tour of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
She said a GCC-wide agreement would be more beneficial than individual deals that take longer to negotiate.
“I’m looking forward to us continuing to progress and get a GCC-UK free trade agreement done sometime soon,” she told The National.
Ms Badenoch, who supported the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, arrived in the Middle East last weekend and said her visit was vital to the negotiations.
She said ministers needed to understand the “obstacles” in negotiations so they could “look at what regulations we may be either able to ease or, in some cases, bring in”.
“The world we are in now is very different from the world we were in 18 months ago, before [the conflict between] Russia and Ukraine started,” she said.
Ms Badenoch said a free trade deal, which typically involves better access to markets, reduced tariffs and more options for consumers, would benefit the GCC.
“If you look at state-owned enterprises and public procurement, these are areas where some of the countries are a little bit more closed,” she said.
“But it allows us to offer more competitive services.”
Ms Badenoch emphasised the UK was mainly a services economy, which allowed it to “go further” than some competitors in seeking deals.
Food and drink, cars and clothes manufactured in the UK were also important in trade agreements, she said.
“There are quite a lot of goods trade coming from the UK to [the Middle East] such as Welsh lamb – it is a brilliant export,” she said.
“We have a strong car manufacturing industry.
“That is something we will be hoping to expand as part of the trade agreement, so it is all to play for.”
Trade between the UK and the GCC reached a record high of £61.3 billion ($75.6 million) last year, state news agency Wam reported.
The UK government has said a free trade deal could increase this by up to 16 per cent.
Demand for goods and services in the GCC is expected to grow to about £1 trillion by 2035.
The UK began negotiations with the six-country bloc last year and has completed three rounds of talks, with a fourth expected this year.
Ms Badenoch said her discussions in the UAE focused on professional services, financial services, data and technology. She met Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications and Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade.
Ms Badenoch described Brexit – the UK leaving the EU in 2020 – as “the greatest-ever vote in confidence in the project of the United Kingdom”.
When asked what she disliked about the move, she said “what’s been bad is how people treated it as an outcome”.
“I think that has been quite sad, because I don’t think that was foreseeable when people were taking part in the referendum,” she said.
Ms Badenoch’s visit to the region follows the first meeting in London of the high-level UAE-UK strategic dialogue.
Both countries said it aimed to advance international peace, security and growth.
She said the dialogue “formed the basis for so many things”, including the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership.
“This is a region very much built on personal relationships and in order to get things done … we need to get over here,” she said.