UK pushing for increase in business with UAE

• Trade commissioner wants FTA
• Aviation and hospitality targeted
• UAE is UK’s sixth-largest trade partner

Britain is “very keen” to secure business in the aviation, hospitality and financial services sectors and elsewhere in Dubai and the wider UAE, a UK trade commissioner has told AGBI. 

A free trade agreement between the UK and the Gulf Co-operation Council, which includes the UAE, would support these opportunities for British companies, said Sarah Mooney, trade commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan and British Consul General to Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

That could unlock $20 billion in trade.

The UAE is the UK’s sixth-largest trading partner globally. 

“We’re very keen to partner with Dubai in this growth story,” said Mooney, who was appointed to her role last month.

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A planned $35 billion expansion of Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport could generate more work for UK companies, she said.

“There is massive opportunity there in design, in financial services, in supporting this development,” Mooney said at a British Chamber of Commerce Dubai event in London this week.

She also pointed to Dubai’s growing hospitality sector, as well as projects in neighbouring emirates, including Ras Al Khaimah’s Wynn casino resort.

“These are opportunities where we can really get behind supply chains,” Mooney said.

The wider UAE’s push into advanced manufacturing, defence, artificial intelligence and data centres also align with British strengths, she said.

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“They want to partner with countries like the UK, where we can help them,” Mooney said.

She said demand for British universities to support education reforms and emiratisation efforts was also growing. Emiratisation refers to government policy to get more Emirati nationals working in the private sector.

Mooney said she was “very hopeful” that a long-delayed UK free trade agreement with the GCC, which could unlock $20 billion in trade, would be signed this year.

“I’m really keen that we get a high-quality GCC FTA across the line to encourage British companies to explore this market,” she said. 

The GCC economic and customs union bloc, made up of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, represents a combined economy of around $2 trillion.