India. A new strategic trade agreement with the UAE

India and the UAE are ready to deepen their trade ties this week with the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, are expected to hold a virtual meeting at the end of the week to announce the bilateral trade agreement.

In a virtual call behind closed doors last week, he says AFUAE Ambassador Ahmed Al-Banna announced that negotiators from both countries had finalized the Cepa draft in December, and said the two sides were waiting for a final signal from their leaders before signing the trade agreement.

Indian Commerce Ministry officials said Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s Economy Minister and India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, are expected to sign the long-awaited free trade agreement following the two chief ministers’ announcement.

The FTA includes negotiations on trade in services and investments, as well as other aspects such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation, as well as competition and intellectual property rights.

The deal will be designed to help both economies. The UAE was India’s third trading partner for the eighth consecutive year in 2020-2021 with trade estimated at $60 billion. Bilateral non-oil trade grew from $185 million in 1985 to more than $43 billion last year. The UAE is also the eighth Indian investor, investing $11 billion between April 2000 and March 2021, while Indian companies have invested more than $85 billion in the UAE. In particular, UAE foreign direct investment in India jumped from $339 million in 2020 to $4.2 billion in 2021.

Ambassador Albana said the UAE plans to invest $75 billion in India to boost infrastructure. With exports estimated at $29 billion in 2019-2020, the UAE is India’s second largest export destination after the United States.

The trade deal is expected to allow the two countries to increase bilateral non-oil trade to $100 billion over five years and increase trade in services to $15 billion, resulting in greater social and economic prospects in both countries.

Maddalena Ingrau