UAE, Middle East to be largest competing market for Asian firms amidst US tariff row

The UAE, and other Middle East countries, will be the largest competing playground for Chinese and other Asian companies as they will increasingly look to this region due to US President Donald Trump’s policies around tariffs, senior officials of family-owned businesses said on Tuesday.

While speaking at the FO Summit Dubai, they said that the tariffs in US are opportunities for the UAE and this region. This is because these tariff rows are sowing confusion among Asian companies that are looking to expand to foreign markets.

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“We visited China to explore the best companies. We looked at AI (artificial intelligence) and automotive firms to find the right partners. We had a good meeting and hopefully announce partnerships soon. China has probably over 100 brands and they are coming here. The Middle East will be the biggest competing market for them because of what Trump is doing and the challenges in Europe. Most of the brands are going to be in the UAE,” said Walid Hizaoui, chief strategy officer, Gargash Group, during a panel discussion at the conference.

Industry executives suggested that geopolitics and tariff row are opportunities for family businesses to capitalise and expand.

Mohamed Zainal Alzarooni, director at the Ministry of Investment, UAE, said there are a lot of opportunities for local firms in India, China and other Asian countries that are looking to diversify supply chains because of geopolitics happening around the world.

“Asian firms are looking at the Middle East. We go out and promote the UAE and meet those companies to bring them here and facilitate them to find the right partners. We helped some of them in finding the right partners. This is what we have been doing in the past 6 months,” he said during the panel discussion.

He added that Asia economies are highly promising when it comes to returns for the UAE and regional companies.

Omar Salameh, CEO of Vivium Holding, said his company is eying some European markets such as Spain and Greece.

Waheed Abbas

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.