Middle East Business
Britain says it is ready to sign the Gulf trade agreement within weeks, with legally guaranteed procurement access in the UAE and Bahrain
By Staff Writer | 7 September 2026
The United Kingdom's Minister for Trade, speaking in Dubai on 1 September 2026, said the agreement concluded with the Gulf Cooperation Council on 20 May is ready for signature. The official summary puts current two-way trade at 53 billion pounds and the long-run uplift at 19.8 per cent, and gives United Kingdom suppliers their first binding access to UAE federal procurement.
Anas Sarwar, the United Kingdom's Minister of State for Trade, said on 1 September 2026 that Britain is ready to sign its free trade agreement with the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council and wants the remaining discussions measured in weeks rather than months. He was speaking in Dubai at the end of a visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, his first outside Europe since taking the trade portfolio on 23 July 2026.
Negotiations began in June 2022 and concluded in London on 20 May 2026. The agreement now awaits signature, after which it passes through the domestic procedures of each party, including United Kingdom parliamentary procedure, before it enters into force. No signature date has been given.
We're ready to sign the GCC deal. We're ready to start the preparatory work on what a bilateral agreement would look like, between the UK and the UAE.
Anas Sarwar, Minister of State for Trade, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
The figures in the official summary
The United Kingdom government's conclusion summary puts total trade with the six states at 53 billion pounds a year on the latest Office for National Statistics figures, and estimates that the agreement could raise bilateral trade by 19.8 per cent in the long run, an extra 15.5 billion pounds a year against 2040 projections. It estimates the boost to the United Kingdom economy at 3.7 billion pounds a year on the same basis. Duties on current United Kingdom exports to the Gulf worth an estimated 580 million pounds a year are to be removed once the agreement is fully implemented, with 360 million pounds of that removed on the day it enters into force.
UK trade with the UAE alone was worth 25 billion pounds in 2025, making the Emirates Britain's largest trading partner in the Gulf and its twentieth largest worldwide, on the government figures given to the interviewer. Mr Sarwar said that during the visit he met the UAE Minister of Foreign Trade and held talks at DP World on investment and infrastructure, and that the discussions included railways and airports where United Kingdom expertise and export finance might support expansion.
What the procurement chapter gives contractors and consultants
The government procurement chapter establishes legally binding commitments with two of the six states, Bahrain and the UAE, and follows the principles of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Government Procurement, of which no Gulf state is a member. Covered contracts must be let by open or selective tendering, with limited tendering allowed only under stated conditions. For the UAE it secures the first legally guaranteed access to federal procurement for United Kingdom goods, services and suppliers, covering federal departments that adopt the UAE's new national digital procurement platform, and a binding guarantee that United Kingdom suppliers may apply for certification as In-Country Value suppliers, which the summary says can carry an advantage of up to 25 per cent in the evaluation of bids. Bahrain's commitments include access to high-value contracts in transport and infrastructure, and a 10 per cent price preference with simplified procedures for United Kingdom small and medium-sized enterprises established there.
The chapter carries standalone provisions on small business participation, on environmental, social and labour considerations and on the integrity of the procurement process, which the summary says are a first in a GCC trade agreement and are aimed among other things at prompt payment and at preventing conflicts of interest. The other four states, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are required to review their participation in the chapter within two years, with a view to future negotiations. A professional services annex commits both sides to identify bodies willing to discuss mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
Two further points sit in the small print. Businesses gain the right to an advance ruling on tariff classification, valuation and origin within 90 days. And on entry into force the United Kingdom will terminate its bilateral investment treaties with Oman and Bahrain, while the treaty with the UAE remains in place.
What has not been stated
No signature date has been announced, and the legal text is still being finalised and verified. The thresholds and lists of covered entities in each procurement schedule are not in the summary, and nothing has been said about which UAE federal departments have so far adopted the digital platform, so the practical scope of the guaranteed access cannot yet be measured.