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The UAE has worked overtime in recent years to diversify its foreign policy and trade relationships, but the United States remains the country’s preferred partner, says Steve Lutes. The US Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for Middle East affairs, Lutes says there’s a “real business case” for American companies to do business in the UAE.
The US Chamber of Commerce is the largest business lobby in the United States and traces its history back well over a century. Here in the UAE, it aims to keep dialogue open with policymakers on key business and trade issues, to spark interest among US businesses, and provide companies in both countries with a platform to network and collaborate.
The US and the UAE have long had a strong trade and investment relationship, with trade between the countries reaching USD 31.4 bn in 2023. The resulting USD 18.3 bn trade surplus for the US is its fourth largest surplus globally, according to data from the UAE embassy in Washington. The UAE is the US’ largest export market in the Middle East — more than 1.5k American businesses have set up shop in the Emirates.
We sat down in Dubai for coffee with Lutes when he was recently in town on business. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- US climate companies “cannot not be” in the Emirates;
- The chamber is talking with the Emirates Drug Establishment about everything from intellectual property protection to what the “healthcare system of the future” looks like in biopharma, healthtech, and diagnostics;
- The space industry is potentially interesting, especially if companies here see opportunity split between the Emirates and Saudi Arabia;
- Data sovereignty is an issue for US companies doing business here — how to respect local data control and privacy rules while still giving companies the flexibility they need to do business;
- The UAE will remain attractive to US companies so long as “the rules of the road [are clear] and the playing fields [remain] level.”
ENTERPRISE: How much interest is the UAE getting from US businesses?
Steve Lutes: The UAE hosting COP28 supercharged US businesses’ interest in the UAE, especially in the energy transition and energy security sectors. There was already interest, but when you get out into the United States beyond the East Coast and the West Coast, if you were a small business and you had an innovative technology in climate change, you might not have thought the UAE is a natural place to go because you googled it and you saw Adnoc. But then when you dive a little deeper and then realize what their plans were for COP28 and, ultimately, what they accomplished; [you’ll find] that they’re very serious about both of these spaces.
I think interest is only on a sharp curve up, because It’s almost like it’s an innovation capital hub. It is super energized when it comes to the knowledge-based economy, and they put a lot of emphasis on innovation and early adoption. So whether you’re a young startup looking to scale or you’re a large multinational, it’s almost like you cannot not be here.
The chamber brought its largest delegation to a COP ever, and a lot of it had to do withUAE officials going out of their way to try to say “we fully appreciate that business needs to be at the table.” Governments can set targets in infinity, but you need partners, investors, innovators, and you need the private sector. [Those are the people who] ultimately can cooperate with governments to deliver.
For those at the chamber covering energy and environmental policy, I think they felt that this was one of the most consequential COPs that there’s been in a while. The priority now for the chamber in the region is “how do we keep that momentum going?” We want to make sure that US companies are continuing to come here and take advantage of the opportunities. The follow-on and what comes after is just as important as what’s announced and what you do during those two weeks. Policies, standards, regulations have to be developed, and we always want to be a part of that conversation.
ENTERPRISE: You’ve mentioned renewable energy, what other sectors in the UAE is the chamber looking at?
SL: We held a meeting with Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the chairman of the new Emirates Drug Establishment, which is analogous to the US’ Food and Drug Administration. We pulled together a group of companies with him and the director general, Dr. Fatima Al Kaabi, to understand what they’re looking to do. The establishment impacts, of course, the innovative biopharmaceutical companies, healthtech, diagnostics, so we want to understand how they want to build a healthcare system for the future.
We’re looking to be a part of the conversation on how they go forward and have an eye toward the policy and regulatory regime and making sure that whether it’s intellectual property or data governance, that they’re thinking through how that’s going to affect business and do things that are patient-oriented, but that also don’t harm innovation and don’t harm investment, so threading that needle and getting those things right.
Our intention is also to bring a delegation focused on space. Maybe there’s a smaller number of companies, but those that are in it have come to appreciate that the UAE again is matching their plans with action. We’ve seen what they’ve done with some of the projects already, and I think the future is really impressive. There’s already a great relationship with government-to-government and NASA, and there’s already US companies that are working in this area here. So what we want to do is bring more US companies.
We hope to bring that delegation also to Saudi, because both countries have a space agency. if you’re a US company coming all this way, it might make sense to come here and capture Saudi.
We’re also talking to governments about data privacy and data governance, because it’s fundamental in a global economy where governments naturally want to put a lot of barriers or walls. They want to localize and control the data. But if you’re a global company or a startup and you have an office here in the UAE, and you’re based back in Santa Clara or somewhere, it doesn’t really matter. You need to move the information back and forth, and you need to do that efficiently. We’re having those conversations with governments and noting that there’s different classifications and levels of data, and helping them figure that out so that cross border data flows are enabled.
Here in the UAE, I think they’ve done a really good job talking to the chamber and to business and getting that right, because then that underpins AI. The chamber is bringing companies to the table to talk to the Emirati government and other governments in the region to help figure out what that looks like.
ENTERPRISE: Has the corporate tax — and the erosion of the UAE’s “tax-free” status — impacted interest from businesses looking to set up shop in the UAE?
SL: The important thing when it comes to policy practice is when you have a significant change, not to roll it out and say, you have three months to adapt to this. You need to give a long runway and grace period for companies to adjust internally and anticipate that. I think there’s so many factors that are working in the UAE’s favor, so I don’t foresee a major impact [from the corporate tax] on companies pulling back on investment. The tax was onboarded with enough awareness, time, and discussion that people can internalize that and figure out how to handle it.
ENTERPRISE: Are US businesses deterred by the increasingly complex geopolitical environment on this side of the world? G42 recently had to cut ties with Chinese businesses in order to appease US partners. Are these partnerships a problem for US businesses?
SL: As a business, you should want to make sure that the rules of the road and the game is fair. I think most US companies would say, if everything is on a level playing field, then our product and our ability to deliver service; we can compete. We think we can succeed, particularly in a place like here in the UAE, where the focus is on innovation and new technologies, because I think, by most measures, the US is a tech giant. Of course, competition is growing, but we still continue to excel at that. Are we going to be the lowest cost producer? No, but that’s been the case for decades. So that’s not our value add. That’s not our strength.
What our manufacturers produce often comes with the aftersale benefit; the training, the maintenance, things that others may not bring to the table. So for governments like here in UAE, I think there’s a confidence that the US will continue to be a main strategic partner here and elsewhere in the region, and as long as the rules of the road and the playing fields level, I think there’s a strong confidence that we can compete and succeed.
ENTERPRISE: Why do you think the UAE has been so successful in positioning itself as an innovation capital hub?
SL: They’ve been smart and fortunate to have an incredibly capable population. I think they’ve brought enough people, the majority of whom are trained and educated in an area that fits one of the buckets they prioritize. They’re not thinking about how to get a job in the field of the last hundred years, but you know, what do the next ten-15 years look like? It’s a very forward looking approach, and it’s become part of the culture here.
They put a lot of effort into the STEM space, so they’re churning out people that are working in genomics and life sciences. You have practitioner doctors, but you also have Emiratis that are coming out of colleges and programs that are thinking about how we can enable genomics and what that means for the future of healthcare here in the UAE.
They’re also matching that with the investments, so that you have leading hospitals that are coming here and setting up shop and they have innovation centers as well. They’re matching the talent with investment and the know how and capability of global firms. And then also putting in place the policy environment that enables it all. Because if you have a lot of roadblocks, things that limit that, it’s just going to become a challenge.
There’s a really interesting FDI program that aims to attract companies that are looking to scale, and they can be young companies that have a new technology or innovation and are looking for a place to grow. The program offers incentives and helps them not only establish themselves here, but also to use this as a hub to grow their business in the region. That also sets the UAE apart, because they’re not just looking for the big multinationals, they’re looking at the future multinationals or companies that are growing and doing innovative things.
