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UK ministers visit Gulf in pursuit of free trade deal

By Gavin Gibbon
Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq Al Said visited UK prime minister Kier Starmer last month. UK ministers are now in Oman ahead of GCC FTA talks Thomas Krych/ZUMA/Alamy via Reuters
The Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, visited the UK prime minister, Kier Starmer, last month. UK ministers are now in Oman ahead of GCC FTA talks
  • Labour government prioritises GCC
  • ‘Hunger’ on both sides for a deal
  • UK to host Saudi investment summit

Senior ministers from the UK have arrived in Oman as part of a whirlwind tour of the Gulf designed to accelerate trade talks under the new Labour government.

The UK topped the list of countries investing into Oman in 2022, with OR9.6 billion ($25 billion), dwarfing the US in second spot on OR3.7 billion, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information.

Britain’s business and trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and the trade policy minister, Douglas Alexander, are wooing potential investors before a seventh round of discussions over a free trade agreement between the UK and the GCC bloc of six countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.

The last round of talks, held in London, ended in February. Since then the Labour government has come to power and placed the trade deal with the GCC, as well as similar deals with India, Switzerland and South Korea, at the top of the agenda.

The GCC secretary-general, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, said in July that a UK free trade agreement could be signed this year, although that may now appear optimistic.

Oliver Christian, the UK's trade commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan, said he was hopeful a seventh round of talks will be held before the end of the year.

“Finer points” and “little details” needed to be resolved but “there is a hunger there on both sides to get this done,” Christian said.

The GCC has long been a strong investment partner for the UK, with a £19 billion relationship as of 2021. A trade deal with the bloc of six could boost the UK economy by £1.6 billion, according to government estimates.

Alexander said: “We want our trading partners in the Gulf and around the world to know that the UK is open for business and keen to negotiate trade deals that help businesses across sectors and all parts of the UK to prosper.”

During the stop in Riyadh, Reynolds's first official foreign visit since assuming office in July, discussions took place over encouraging British companies to expand their operations in Saudi Arabia, and promoting the growth of startups in research and innovation-driven sectors.

Majid Al-Kassabi, Saudi Arabia's minister of commerce, and chairman of the economic and social committee of the Saudi-British Strategic Partnership Council, said 79 initiatives across 13 economic sectors were progressing to strengthen the Saudi-British partnership.

Bilateral trade between the two countries grew by more than 30 percent from 2018 to 2023, reaching $103 billion.

Currently almost 1,140 British investors operate in Saudi Arabia.

The UK will host a major international investment summit on October 14 aimed at promoting investment in the country, bringing together up to 300 global business leaders.

Christian said: “The prime minister and his team and the foreign secretary have made it very obvious that they want to re-engage a lot of relationships across the world and particularly re-energise the partnerships here in the GCC.”

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