UK investment minister: GCC trade deal would develop AI, fintech sectors

A free trade agreement (FTA) between the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooporation Council (GCC) should help promote innovation and develop new industries like fintech and artificial intelligence (AI), Britain’s Investment Minister Dominic Johnson has told Al-Monitor. 

Kemi Badenoch, secretary of state for the Department for Business and Trade, visited the Gulf in May to discuss a trade deal with the GCC, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Badenoch met with the new Secretary-General of the GCC Jasem Al-Budaiwi during the visit. Since leaving the European Union at the beginning of 2020, the United Kingdom has been pursuing new trade deals in the Middle East, including with the GCC and Turkey. Britain began trade talks with the GCC in 2022, and there are more negotiations due to take place later this year.

For the year ending March 2023, trade between the United Kingdom and GCC countries amounted to 65.2 billion pounds ($83.8 million). The Gulf is Britain’s seventh-largest export market and demand for UK goods and services is expected to reach almost 1 trillion pounds ($1.3 trillion) by 2035.

Johnson, minister of state for investment, said there was “strong political will on both sides” to negotiate a trade deal.