Starmer hails 'good progress' on trade deal with GCC

The National

10-04-2025

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has hailed the 'good progress' agreeing a GCC-UK trade deal in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In Wednesday's call, they and spoke about tariffs and economic partnership, Downing Street said. 'The leaders started by discussing recent developments on global trade tariffs,' a spokeswoman said.
'The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to working closely with international partners to maintain global economic stability. He added that the UK will continue to take a measured and calm approach.
'The leaders discussed the importance of strengthening economic partnerships to provide further certainty for businesses, and agreed to build on the good progress so far on the UK-GCC Free Trade Agreement.
'Turning to defence, the leaders agreed to continue work to deepen defence and security co-operation.'
The Saudi Press Agency said the two leaders 'reviewed bilateral relations, explored areas of co-operation, and discussed ways to enhance them. They also addressed several topics of mutual interest.'
After last year's general election, Britain's Labour government said it was eager to restart talks towards securing a free-trade agreement with the GCC.
Negotiations resumed in September and since then virtual and in person negotiations have taken place, including a GCC delegation visiting London in October and a UK delegation visiting Riyadh in November.
In December, trade minister Douglas Alexander said the focus from both sides was on achieving a 'modern and commercially meaningful agreement'.
The UK's recently appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds told The National last month the UK aims to deepen its trade and investment partnership with the UAE and is seeking more dual listings on the London Stock Exchange to further strengthen ties in the financial sector.
Ms Reynolds described a free trade agreement with the GCC as 'in development', but there was 'for more, a more detailed partnership with the UAE on the GCC-FTA'. She said the UAE is a 'hugely important economy for us … [the two countries have a] historically close relationship.
'We signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] together on financial services in October 2023. So, I've been discussing where we can have concrete follow-up steps, whether it's progress on dual listings that we'd like to see, or on further exchanging ideas around open banking and FinTech and, indeed, sustainable finance.'
Record numbers of tourists from the UAE and Gulf regions are expected to visit the UK this year and spend an estimated £3.5 billion.
In its inbound tourism forecast for 2025, VisitBritain research has found 548,000 UAE visitors will travel to the UK – up 10 per cent on the 2024 estimate. Their spending is expected to jump by 22 per cent to £1.1 billion this year on their trips in the UK, according to Oxford Economics.
The number of tourists from GCC countries, including the UAE, visiting the UK is also set to rise to 1.4 million, an eight per cent rise on the 2024 estimate.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir's cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided 'false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s' when in fact 'Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers'.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must: be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
not be younger than 25 years old
not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
'Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,' said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients' money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
'We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client's) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,' he added.
Mercer Wealth's clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year's global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients' looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
'Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,' said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
'What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,' he said.
'In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.'
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority's private equity department focused on structured equities owing to 'their defensive characteristics.'