QNA
Doha
Minister of State for Trade Policy in the UK Department for Business and Trade Greg Hands said that Qatar and the United Kingdom enjoy an exceptionally strong and unique relationship because of the historic friendship and the economic integration between the two countries.
The UK minister said that Qatar, as a big growing economy, produces a lot of energy needs that are important for the UK; noting that the two countries invest heavily in each other’s economies, with Qatari investment in the UK reaching about 40 billion pound sterling, including iconic things like Heathrow Airport, Harrods, British Airways, and iconic sort of British brands.
The British official, who is on his second visit to Qatar, noted equally increased UK investment in Qatar, particularly on the services side. "The UK is the world’s second-largest exporter of services. So the two economies I think fit together very, very well and the friendship is very good. I’m delighted to be here for my second visit to Qatar,” he said.
The UK minister noted that the purpose of his visit was not only to further the bilateral relations between the UK and Qatar but also to drive forward the free trade agreement negotiations between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Qatar has played a really important role as chair of the GCC this year. "It’d be fantastic to do the deal while Qatar is the chair of the GCC, but we still have quite a lot in this negotiation to do,” he said.
Hands pointed to a round of negotiation held in Riyadh in November, adding that the next round of the talks will be held in London at the end of this month.
"We have still a lot of work to do on goods markets, on investment and services, and financial services. So, there’s still quite a bit of work to do,” he noted.
On the challenges that face the free trade agreement, he said that they are normal challenges that any trade negotiation would face, explaining that 72 trade agreements have been negotiated in total, and any trade agreement has both sides have their priorities, and both sides need to compromise.
"Sometimes you have to give away a little bit more than you wanted to give away. But ultimately trade is a win for both sides. This will grow the GCC economy by more than a billion pounds per annum. We do 61 billion pounds worth of trade a year with the GCC. Qatar is alone about 12 billion of that, about a fifth of our trade with the GCC,” he said.
The minister underlined his country’s interest in promoting cooperation with Qatar in several fields, from agriculture through to automobile manufacturing, as well as the UK services expertise in areas like legal architecture and project management.
He noted that Qatar is still growing in many of these areas and needs the UK expertise, so service professionals can move between the two marketsmore easily.
He believed that trade is a massive facilitator of a closer relationship, and the GCC is one of the UK’s biggest trade partners.
"The UK is much bigger a trade partner for the GCC than one might expect. I think the background to doing this deal is very, very strong and will help cement all of the other important areas for UK Qatar like defense and security. We have got a lot of things going on between the two countries,” he stressed.
The minister noted that the UK is already attracting a huge amount of Qatari investment in light of its predictable legal system, predictable regulatory system, tax system, and openness to foreign investment.
"Since Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK, the UK has been open to foreign investment and Qatar has been a really strong investor,” he said.
"I think we’d like to see more investment coming into not just London, but the rest of the country as well. I think Qatari investment into some of our companies, some of our infrastructure. The UK has got quite big infrastructure needs. I think Qatari investment into those areas I think is very well,” he said.
The UK minister praised the role undertaken by Qatar in supplying the UK with LNG.