India and UAE are ambitiously charting a course to expand bilateral trade to USD 100 billion and both the countries are looking for newer propositions from industry and business to further enhance their partnership. While bilateral trade has increased under the India UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), key collaborations such as the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, initiatives to promote Rupay and facilitate direct trade between rupee and dirham have injected a strong momentum in the relations.
The India-UAE CEPA, a comprehensive agreement that addresses every facet of India’s economic relations with the UAE, including trade, investments, healthcare, digital trade, government procurement, intellectual property rights, etc, completed one year on 1 May, 2023. The agreement eliminates 80 per cent tariffs on Indian and UAE goods and all the tariffs will be eliminated within 10 years. The pact between the nations gives the UAE zero-duty access to 90 per cent of India’s exports to the country. The CEPA is expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over USD 100 billion and trade in services to over USD 15 billion within five years.
After a year of the agreement, India and UAE’s trade has shown fruitful results. During the CEPA implementation period (from May 22 to Mar 23), bilateral trade increased from USD 67.5 billion (May 21-Mar 2022) to USD 76.9 billion (May 22-Mar 2023), registering an annual increase of 14 per cent. India exported goods worth USD 31.3 billion to the UAE during FY 22-23 with a YoY growth of 11.8 per cent YoY. Bilateral trade has reached its all-time high of approximately USD 84.5 billion (FY 2022-23), registering a YoY growth of 16 per cent.
Underlining these bilateral strides, Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal who is looking at further strengthening the ties, held talks with the UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi at the UAE India Business Summit on the sidelines of ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ taking place in Ahmedabad. With the multifaceted progress in ties encompassing collaborations in space exploration, security, education, and climate action, India and the UAE are keen to unlock the full value of their growing exchanges.