The UAE expects trade with India to cross USD 100 billion mark over the next 2-3 years, boosted by the comprehensive economic partnership agreement. The Indo-UAE trade stood at USD 73 billion in FY22, which got a major fillip since the two nations signed the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) on May 1, 2022.
The overall trade between FY21 and FY22 rose 68 percent to USD 73 billion, after declining for two years. But the trend has reversed since the signing of CEPA.
The bilateral trade has increased markedly with a total value of non-oil trade at USD 29.5 billion in the first six months of 2022, growing 22 percent over the same period in 2021.
Foreign Trade Minister of the UAE, Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said, "Non-oil exports too rose 31 percent with total value reaching USD 2.7 billion between May and June" at the India-UAE economic forum organized by CII (Confederation of Indian Industry).
Zeyoudi said, "Though we've set a five-year deadline to take the UAE-India bilateral trade to USD 100 billion from what it is now, going by the way trade has been growing since the signing of the CEPA, I am confident that we'll achieve the target much earlier, say over the next two-three years,"
The minister said trade is still dominated by oil, which constitutes 62 percent of the overall trade value and only 38 percent is non-oil trade now. But he expressed hope that CEPA will change this over the years. He also added that while the non-oil trade balance is still in favour of India by a whisker, overall India has a trade deficit of USD 17 billion in FY22, led vastly by large oil imports.
The UAE minister also said, his country's cumulative investments in India are over USD 20 billion, of which USD 14.4 billion are FDI, making the UAE the eighth largest FDI source for India. During the first half of 2022, bilateral non-oil trade grew 22 percent to USD 29.5 billion.
In April-June this year, FDI flows into the country from the UAE stood at USD 2.14 billion. Zeyoudi also said his country is open to investing in the now-stalled West Coast Refinery if India revives the 60-million tonne refinery involving over Rs 3 lakh crore investment.
Addressing another session at the same forum, Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Srikar Reddy said, since the CEPA, overall exports from the country to the UAE rose 16 percent to USD 10.46 billion from USD 9 billion between May and August, which is commendable given the decline in overall global trade during the period.
Reddy also said exports under the CEPA have been outpacing the country's overall exports by 5:1. On the other hand, non-oil exports to the UAE grew 14 percent. In addition, he said non-oil trade is still dominated by gems & jewellery which constitutes around a third of the total trade, which has grown by 33 percent to USD 1.4 billion.
The companies from the UAE that have invested in India are Mubadala, DP World, Sharaf Group, Lulu Group, Emaar Properties, and RAK Ceramics. The companies from India that have invested in the UAE are ONGC & PetroResources, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro Middle East, Oberoi Group, Zuari Agro Chemicals, and Essar Steel Manufacturing Company.
