North East LEP and regional partners submit response to government’s consultation on trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Paul Carbert, Economic Policy Co-ordinator at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), outlines the promising potential opportunities for the North East.

As the UK looks to establish new trading relationships around the world, the government launched a consultation in October 2021 to help inform its approach to negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the future.

The GCC represents the countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

These countries have not traditionally been leading trade partners for the North East. However, given the £300m sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia last October, opportunities to build on this relationship for increasing exports and inward investment have grown.

The links with the region were also boosted when Emirates last month indicated there will soon be a resumption of daily flights between Newcastle International Airport and Dubai, up from the current four services a week.

As outlined in the North East trade and export strategy Global North East: Driving growth in North East trade and exports, increasing the number of exporters in the North East and increasing the value of exported goods and services is a key part of our regional Strategic Economic Plan.

Our GCC consultation response highlighted the specific opportunities for the North East to respond to import priorities identified by GCC states, including growing exports from key manufacturing, energy and service sectors in the North East, including renewable energy, electric vehicles, pharmaceutical manufacturing, life sciences, business, digital and professional services.

We also referenced the need to reduce existing barriers to trade and investment, as well as the good opportunity to use the power of soft diplomacy through culture, tourism, and sport to capitalise on the growing interest in Newcastle United Football Club.

An added benefit of these sorts of links is also the promotion of shared understanding and values across different parts of the world.

Our response is a combined regional viewpoint drawn up by a group comprising stakeholders convened by the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, North East Local Enterprise Partnership and Department for International Trade regional team and includes Newcastle International Airport, the Port of Tyne, Newcastle United Football Club, the North East England Chamber of Commerce, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, DWF Law LLP and North East businesses in the construction, digital, life sciences and legal sectors. The group also spoke about the potential to form a business forum in the future to make this alliance permanent.

The partners that contributed to this response believe that the North East has a unique opportunity to forge a new trading relationship with the Gulf states, growing the regional economy and delivering on the government’s Levelling Up agenda and the ambitions outlined in the national Export Strategy. The partners are enthusiastic that trade negotiations with the GCC represent a significant opportunity for the North East and were determined to highlight this to the government negotiating team.

Of course, it remains vital that we improve on our relationship with the EU, our biggest trading partner, to recover our export rate, but we are also ready to seize new opportunities when they arise. Global North East identifies specific opportunities for extending exports in countries like the US and Japan, and to build new markets in the far east, taking advantage of free trade agreements around the world.

The trade negotiations with the GCC states provide a valuable opportunity to grow exports from our manufacturing and services sectors, increase inward investment to the region, and represent an important Levelling Up opportunity for the UK.

It is vital that the North East is recognised as a key priority in building new trade links with GCC states.