Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India and the UAE look to more than double non-oil bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030. At present, the non-oil bilateral trade stands at $48 billion. The new target was agreed upon during the first meeting of the Joint Committee of India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The agreement was implemented on May 1 last year.
The minister stated that the UAE is a major supplier of crude oil to India. Oil shipments account for a major share of bilateral trade between the countries. He said that businesses from both sides were encouraged to further expand this trade and smooth implementation of the CEPA will help in this. He also said ‘we have also agreed to set up an India-UAE CEPA Council that will serve as a vehicle for both governments and the export-oriented private sector to facilitate the implementation of CEPA by creating awareness and building partnerships, and organising business events in both countries’. He added that this council would focus on areas such as MSMEs, startups, women entrepreneurs, services sector participants.
Talking on the bilateral trade, he said the two leaders have asked businesses to do more trade in the petroleum sector also. He also said India imports a lot of petroleum products and the UAE is its principal supplier and the UAE is also a large consumer of refined petroleum products. They are also large traders in refined products going beyond their own capacity. He said ‘So I requested the UAE to encourage their companies to look at sourcing refined products more and more from India’.
