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The EU and United Arab Emirates have launched commerce talks as international locations proceed to seek for different markets attributable to US tariffs.
European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen agreed to the request of UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan throughout a name on Thursday.
“The UAE shares robust and long-standing ties with the European Union and its member states, and right this moment we agreed to launch negotiations in direction of a Complete Financial Partnership Settlement with the EU,” mentioned Sheikh Mohammed in a submit on X.
“By means of this settlement, we purpose to deepen bilateral relations and promote financial progress for the advantage of our international locations and peoples,” he added.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump mentioned he would hit each the EU and UAE with so referred to as “reciprocal tariffs” of 20 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. He has since paused the levies for 90 days to permit for negotiations.
The UAE, one of many world’s high 10 oil producers, has been pushing for a take care of the EU for a while however Brussels hoped to strike one with the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the UAE is a member.
The UAE has pursued dozens of bilateral commerce offers lately, sidestepping the slower-moving members of the GCC corresponding to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Though the EU and GCC started negotiating a free commerce settlement in 1990, talks stalled in 2008.
Emirati state media reported final month that the UAE had began work on 26 Complete Financial Partnership Agreements since 2021, of which six have formally “entered into power”. However as its second-largest international buying and selling associate, with $67.6bn in bilateral commerce exterior oil in 2024, the EU is a very necessary goal for the UAE.
The EU imports mining merchandise and manufactured items from the UAE and sells it equipment, transport tools and chemical compounds.
Abu Dhabi vitality firms and sovereign funds have invested closely in Europe, from an enormous chemical compounds group in Germany to photo voltaic farms in Spain and a renewable vitality firm in Greece.
“The upcoming negotiations will concentrate on liberalising commerce in items, providers, and funding, whereas deepening co-operation in strategic sectors corresponding to renewable vitality, inexperienced hydrogen and important uncooked supplies,” the Fee mentioned in a press release.
