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Saudi and New Zealand officials held several meetings in late September, aimed at reviving plans for a free trade agreement (FTA). The previous round of negotiations ended without success in 2009, when the agreement was thought to have stalled in part because of the ‘sheepgate’ scandal, involving a ban on the live export of New Zealand sheep and a well-connected Saudi businessman. New Zealand trade minister Todd McClay met his counterpart Dr Majid Al-Qasabi in Riyadh on 28 September, after which McClay said there was “an extremely pleasing outcome from my mission to Saudi Arabia. We can now see a way forward towards the completion of the FTA”.

Supporters of Khater Massad said the controversial Lebanese-Swiss businessman was detained in Jeddah on 20 September, based on an arrest warrant issued in Ras Al-Khaimah, which claims he embezzled public funds. Massad (also spelt Massaad) strongly denies the allegations.

Secretary of state for international trade Liam Fox has been on a brief tour of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) capitals, as part of efforts to line up new trade deals for the UK’s post-European Union future. The UK is not able to sign any trade deals until it leaves the EU, which is unlikely to happen before 2019 at the earliest, but it is keen to set out the parameters of possible new deals ahead of that date.

A Moroccan-born US businessman is seeking to have Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK) Ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi added as a defendant to a suit for damages, which was originally filed in May against RAK Free Trade Zone Authority (RAKFTAZ) and the New York office of public relations agency Kreab. The plaintiff, Oussama El Omari, was employed by RAK Free Trade Zone (RAKFTZ) from the late 1990s until his dismissal in mid-2012, by which time he had risen to chief executive and director-general on a salary of some $32,000/month.

Ghazi Abu Nahl, a Palestinian-born businessman with a prominent position in the Gulf insurance industry, has taken to the Dubai courts to sue accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche (Middle East) and its managing partner Joseph El Fadl for their role in the auditing of the now defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB). LCB was accused by the US Treasury Department in February 2011 of money laundering on behalf of drugs traffickers and providing financial support to Lebanese Hizbollah.

A Nasdaq-listed US health information technology company is trying to have an award made in its favour by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s International Court of Arbitration against an Emirati company and its owner, an important Abu Dhabi businessman, enforced in a US court.Cerner Middle East, owned by Missouri-based Cerner Corporation, was awarded a contract worth $94m in autumn 2008 from Abu Dhabi-based iCapital LLC and its owner Ahmed Saeed Al-Badi Al-Dhaheri for the design, installation and maintenance of health care information software.

The merger of International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) and Mubadala Development Company (MDC), announced in late June, will create a $135bn sovereign wealth fund that brings together domestic and international assets across energy, aerospace, industry and other strategic sectors. It will offer a welcome opportunity for Abu Dhabi to cut costs. However, making a success of the merger will not necessarily be straightforward, given the very different strategies the two funds have pursued until now.

A 13 June cabinet meeting, chaired by King Salman, finally approved the Undeveloped Land Fees Regulation, a tax on undeveloped urban land, popularly known as ‘white land’. The 2.5% tax on the value of undeveloped land designated for residential or commercial use will be applied in stages to owners of plots bigger than 5,000m2. The Ministry of Housing will collect the levy and fine owners who don’t pay the tax. The long-awaited tax, intended to ease the severe shortage of housing by encouraging landowners to develop their assets, has been expected for some weeks.

With the Dubai property market going through one of its periodic downturns, the authorities are keen to contain pessimism, lest it upsets investor sentiment. Some local market players have put a positive spin on the past year’s 10% price slump, by suggesting there should be a recovery in H2 2016. Not everyone is convinced, however, with the market confronted with a twofold problem: the strong US dollar, which has made property more expensive for international buyers, and low oil prices, which mean regional investors have less money. That has opened up a gap between supply and demand.

While the Dubai property market shows marked signs of cooling down (see below), investors in the UAE and other Gulf states show little sign of losing their enthusiasm for buying property in London, which along with New York and a very few other locations is an acknowledged global safe haven for parking assets out of potential harm’s way. (A variety of sources report that the UK’s heated ‘Brexit’ debate over possible departure from the European Union has elicited barely a murmur from Gulf investors, who see business continuing more or less as usual in London whatever happens.)

Prince Khalid Bin Alwaleed’s KBW Investments has acquired a majority stake in Dubai-based Grayscale Interiors, which does high end interior fit-outs. Prince Khalid has a focus on construction and technology and in 2015 was appointed chairman of the Saudi Green Building Forum. The prince – who describes himself as a “healthy living advocate, tech fanatic (aka geek), vegan, and animal lover” – was born in California in 1978 to the billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal; he has interests in more than 20 companies. He is married to Munira Bint Ibrahim Al-Assaf, daughter of finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf.

With the Dubai property market going through one of its periodic downturns, the authorities are keen to contain pessimism, lest it upsets investor sentiment. Some local market players have put a positive spin on the past year’s 10% price slump, by suggesting there should be a recovery in H2 2016. Not everyone is convinced, however, with the market confronted with a twofold problem: the strong US dollar, which has made property more expensive for international buyers, and low oil prices, which mean regional investors have less money. That has opened up a gap between supply and demand.

Previous attempts at taxing the Saudi population have been derailed by local opposition. In 1950, the authorities introduced personal income, capital gains and corporate taxes on nationals and foreigners, but within six months the law was reformed to exclude Saudis. In 1975, income taxes on foreigners were suspended due to high oil revenues and the need to recruit expats to build infrastructure and develop the economy.

The deal for India to invest $500m in the development of Chabahar port, signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran which began on 22 May, is a useful fillip to President Hassan Rouhani’s efforts to show the nuclear deal, which came into effect in January, can deliver real benefits to the economy. It promotes a project in Iran’s south-east which will compete with Pakistan’s Gwadar port scheme across the border, which has attracted Saudi as well as Chinese support.

Iran’s Bank Mellat has won a partial victory in the Court of Appeal in London, after it decided on 10 May not to set a limit on the damages the bank can seek as a result of sanctions unlawfully imposed on it. In June 2013, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that sanctions placed on the bank in 2009 were irrational and unlawful. Bank Mellat is pursuing $4bn of damages from the UK Treasury, mostly for loss of future income.