India-UAE non petroleum bilateral trade to be $100 billion by 2030: Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal, cabinet minister for Commerce & Industry said “We have agreed to look at non petroleum trade instead of just petroleum products in this bilateral trade. We have agreed to double non petroleum trade in next seven years by increasing imports to 100 billion dollars.” He said this in a joint press conference with UAE Foreign Trade Minister Thani bin ahmed Al Zeyoudi to discuss Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Goyal said that they hoping to reach exports of non petroleum products worth $100 billion by 2030.

Major imported items by India from UAE include petroleum crude (US$ 12,756 million) followed by petroleum products (US$ 6,862 million), etc.

CEPA which was signed between the two nations has offered various benefits to the two nations, India and UAE, which will cover trade in various areas such as trade in services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and others, said press release by Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The agreement covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India (11,908 tariff lines) and the UAE (7581 tariff lines) respectively.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), with which India implemented a comprehensive free trade agreement in May last year, emerged as the fourth largest investor in India during 2022-23, according to government data which came out on Sunday.

In the last fiscal, foreign direct investment (FDI) from the UAE to India jumped over three-fold to USD 3.35 billion from USD 1.03 billion in 2021-22, the data of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) showed.UAE’s investments in India are mainly in sectors like services, sea transport, power and construction activities. Major imported items by India from UAE include petroleum crude (US$ 12,756 million) followed by petroleum products (US$ 6,862 million), etc. during April-November 2022, as said by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), started by Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

(With inputs from agencies)