UK starts trade deal process with Saudi Arabia, Gulf

UK starts trade deal process with Saudi Arabia, Gulf

The UK kicked off the process to sign a trade deal with Saudi Arabia and a group of other Gulf states, its latest post-Brexit target as it seeks deeper economic ties beyond the European Union. Negotiations for a pact between Britain and the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members also include Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, aim to start in 2022 following a 14-week consultation with the public and businesses, the UK’s Department for International Trade said in a statement. British trade with the GCC was worth about GBP45bn ($61bn) in 2019, 7 per cent of the size of Britain’s commerce with the EU in the same year. The move comes at a time when Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is taking over Newcastle United FC from billionaire Mike Ashley after it received approval from the UK’s Premier League following a year and a half wait. The deal is being welcomed by the club’s long-suffering fans, while alarming human rights activists who have been pressing the international community to isolate Saudi Arabia over its treatment of government critics, women’s rights campaigners and other groups. Britain is also closing in on post-Brexit free-trade pacts with Australia and New Zealand, and as it seeks