UAE hopes to reactivate trade talks with EU this year

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates hopes to reactivate trade talks with the European Union by the end of the year, the UAE trade minister said on Monday, and is optimistic the talks would be bilateral.

Negotiations between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-country Arab bloc that includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia, remain stalled. Frustrated by that, the UAE has quietly urged the EU to start talks on a trade pact separate from the GCC talks, Reuters reported in March.

“We initiated the discussion, through both the GCC as well as bilaterally, and we’re getting the support from many of the EU members,” Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi told Reuters in an interview.

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He said either EU-GCC or bilateral EU-UAE talks would be an “added value” but added he was optimistic the talks would be bilateral.

The UAE, an influential, oil-rich Middle East state, has long advocated deeper EU involvement in the Gulf region.

The EU and energy-rich GCC started trade talks in 1990 that, if reached, would give companies in the European bloc better access to what is today the EU’s sixth-biggest export market. However, the talks were formally suspended in 2008.

A broader deal with the GCC could further open EU member states to investments from Gulf sovereign wealth funds, major cross-sector investors who take a decades-long outlook.

But the GCC has signed very few trade deals. It finalised a pact with South Korea last year, 16 years after talks started, and entered into negotiations with Britain in 2022.

Abu Dhabi also has close ties to Moscow, which has drawn scrutiny from the United States, European Union and other Western allies, who have pressed the UAE to show it is cracking down on firms evading Russia-related sanctions.

Al Zeyoudi said the UAE expects to conclude a free trade zone agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia and Belarus, before the end of year.

The minister said he did not think that would affect the UAE’s efforts to pursue a closer relationship with the EU.