Just hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said that its economic partnership with India “is a significant milestone in the history of both nations”.
The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, said in an interview, that the UAE-India non-oil trade is expected to reach USD 100 billion a year by 2030. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi noted that UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was designed to deliver a new era of growth and opportunity.
CEPA is an agreement signed between India and UAE on February 18, 2022, and came into force on May 1, 2022. The agreement was signed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Speaking about the success of the CEPA between India and UAE, Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi said, “There is little question that the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will come to be regarded as a significant milestone in the history of both nations.”
“By removing or reducing tariffs on 80 per cent of goods, eliminating unnecessary barriers to trade, creating new platforms for investment, and opening government procurement to each other’s private sector, the UAE-India CEPA was designed to deliver a new era of growth and opportunity – and, ultimately, boost bilateral non-oil trade beyond USD 100 billion by 2030,” he said.
Highlighting the key outcomes of CEPA between India and UAE, the minister said that there is an increase in bilateral trade flows and that the CEPA has added considerable resilience to East-West supply chains and developed a new trade corridor that connects Asia with the Middle East and Africa.
