British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Monday she was confident a trade deal with Gulf countries can be done quickly after she had ‘really good’ meetings in Riyadh about an agreement that could help her plan to speed up economic growth.
“I am really confident we can get that deal over the line,” she said at a forum held in the Saudi capital, adding she was hopeful that the agreement could be reached “very soon”.
Reeves, making the first visit to the region by a British finance minister in six years, will seek to advance trade talks while attending Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment summit.
She planned to use the trip to speak with her counterparts from Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar to try to progress a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council – a six-nation group.
British administrations have sought to reach an agreement with the GCC after Britain left the European Union in 2020.
Reeves also expected to meet senior Saudi royals, members of President Donald Trump’s administration and business figures while in Saudi Arabia for a gathering of global political leaders and company chief executives.
Last year Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought a 15% stake in London’s Heathrow Airport from Spanish construction company Ferrovial and Britain said it expected further investment announcements this week.
New state-owned airline Riyadh Air, which ordered 25 partly British-built Airbus A350 aircraft in June, has announced its inaugural flight will be to Heathrow.
Britain’s finance ministry said on Sunday that Reeves would be “honest over areas of divergence and cultural differences” during her conversations with her Gulf counterparts.
Trade minister Chris Bryant told parliament this month that talks with the GCC were at “an advanced stage”, despite concerns from trade unions close to the Labour Party about poor rights for workers and other perceived abuses in the region.
Britain’s finance ministry said it estimated a GCC trade deal would add 1.6 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) a year to British economic output – equivalent to about 0.06% of annual gross domestic product.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Federico Maccioni）
