Trade ties with India have grown rapidly following CEPA: Al Zeyoudi

NEW DELHI: The Minister of State for Foreign Trade of UAE, Thani Al Zeyoudi on Monday said that the trade ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi have proliferated following the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

"Trade ties with India have grown very rapidly following CEPA. There are several areas where we are looking to provide a further fillip to our robust trading ties," said Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade at a joint press conference in Delhi today.

Highlighting the central goals of India-UAE CEPA at the press conference today, the UAE minister said that one of them was to increase the flow of goods and services between the two countries.

"One of the central goals of the UAE-India CEPA was to increase the flow of goods and services between the UAE and India - and, by doing so, stimulate key export sectors, drive industrial output and kick-start an exciting new era of progress," the UAE Minister said.

It is over a year since the implementation of the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The India-UAE CEPA is a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

It covers trade in goods, services, investment, and other areas of economic cooperation. The CEPA entered into force on May 1, 2022, and 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.

The CEPA is the first deep and full-fledged FTA signed by India with any country in the past decade. Speaking further, Al Zeyoudi added that it's a chance to reflect on the two nations' remarkable journey together.

"Our initial figures suggest that, in the first 12 months of the CEPA, bilateral non-oil trade reached 50.5 billion dollars. That is a 5.8 per cent increase on the corresponding period a year earlier. For context, these figures came amid a sharp decline in global trade in Q3 and Q4 in 2022 - proving that we have created a real nexus of growth," he underlined during the presser in Delhi.

The new partnerships created, the new customers attained, and the new friendships forged will guarantee that this prosperous alliance continues to benefit the citizens of both nations, he added, saying he looks forward to the next steps. Earlier today Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Reserve Bank of India and Central Bank of the UAE are in active dialogue for a Rupee-Dirham trade mechanism.

"Talks for in Rupee-dirham are progressing at a fast pace and the Finance Ministry of India is very supportive of it," Goyal said, addressing the joint meeting of the joint committee of the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

"If we recall in March 2022 when we got talking about how we can make business more attractive between the two countries and how we can help our business persons reduce operating costs and transaction costs. Dialogue of the Rupee-Dirham trade was actually sown in that meeting. It's just about a year since then, but both countries have made significant progress."

He, however, did not mention any timeline for the finalization of the Rupee-Dirham-based trade mechanism.