Kemi Badenoch, Britain’s business and trade minister, will visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates this week as part of her efforts to reach a trade agreement with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Trade talks between the UK and the GCC, which also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman, began last year, and there have been three rounds so far.
“The GCC represents an enormous opportunity for UK firms, whether it’s selling brilliant British food and drink products into new markets or offering new consumers for our flourishing digital trade and renewable energy sectors,” Badenoch stated prior to her visit.
Badenoch will speak at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday as part of a five-day trip that will also include meetings with GCC Secretary-General Jasem al-Budaiwi and ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
According to government figures, Britain exported 36 billion pounds ($45 billion) of services and goods to the GCC last year, and total trade between Britain and GCC nations was 61.3 billion pounds, making the bloc Britain’s seventh-largest trade partner.
The ability to strike independent trade deals was cited as a key benefit of Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union.
The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand will enter into a new trade agreement next month, which the British government claims will boost the economy by 800 million pounds per year.
However, most economists believe that the disruption to much larger trade flows between the UK and the EU will outweigh the benefits of closer collaboration with more geographically distant trade partners.
Last year, the UK exported 340 billion pounds of goods and services to the EU, accounting for 42% of total exports.
Since 2019, when Britain left the EU’s single market, goods exports to the EU have fallen by about 7% in inflation-adjusted terms, while goods exports to the rest of the world have fallen by about 10%.
