India, UAE to further boost economic ties as bilateral trade crosses $100 billion

New Delhi: India and the UAE have agreed to further strengthen trade facilitation, regulatory collaboration and data sharing during the third meeting of the Joint Committee under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) here, an official statement said on Thursday. The meeting, co-chaired by Ajay Bhadoo, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, and Assistant Undersecretary for International Trade Affairs for UAE, Juma Al Kait, welcomed the strong growth in bilateral trade, which crossed $100.06 billion in FY 2024-25, reflecting a robust increase of 19.6 per cent and reaffirming the UAE’s position as one of India’s key trading partners. The UAE delegation also had a meeting with Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal where issues related to optimum CEPA utilisation by both sides were discussed. The two sides conducted a comprehensive review of progress under CEPA and detailed discussions were held on market access issues, data sharing, allocation of Gold TRQ, anti-dumping matters, services, Rules of Origin and BIS licensing etc.

The India side also briefed the UAE on its recent decision to allocate Gold TRQ through a transparent competitive bidding process. According to a Commerce Ministry statement, both sides reviewed recent high-level engagements, including meetings between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE's Minister of Foreign Trade, Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, in Mumbai and Dubai. They reaffirmed their shared commitment to expanding non-oil/non precious metal trade towards the $100 billion target by 2030. “Discussions also covered regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals, resolution of issues related to Certificates of Origin, BIS coordination, and early signing of the MoU on Food Safety and Technical Requirements between Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), India and Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCAE), UAE,” the statement explained. In September this year, Goyal said that investments from the cash-rich UAE into India are likely to shoot up both as FDI in business ventures and FII in the capital markets.