GCC and UK to sign free trade deal as negotiations end

The Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Kingdom will sign a free trade agreement on Wednesday after concluding negotiations, GCC secretary-general Jasem Albudaiwi said.

The deal aims to bolster the strategic partnership between the two sides and elevate economic, commercial and investment ties, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Albudaiwi as saying.

He said the agreement aligns with other efforts by the six GCC member states — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — to diversify their income sources by opening global markets.

A trade deal between Britain and the GCC was first discussed in 2017 in the wake of the UK vote to leave the European Union. Formal negotiations began in June 2022.

In October 2025 the British finance minister, Rachel Reeves, said an FTA would create “huge opportunities for the UK, and for Saudi Arabia and the other GCC countries to access UK capital markets”.

Previous government analysis suggested a trade deal could be worth around $2 billion a year to the UK economy. The GCC is the UK’s seventh-largest export market.

The deal would also make the UK the first G7 country to sign a free trade agreement with the GCC.

Further reading:

• Conflict pushes Omani-Saudi border trade to record levels
• US-Gulf trade rose pre-war despite Trump tariffs
• Trump’s Gulf trade gamble: the numbers don’t add up