INDIA and the UAE look to more than double non-oil bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday. At present, the non-oil bilateral trade stands at USD 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. “We have mutually agreed that let us now become more ambitious and instead of our earlier target of an overall USD 100 billion bilateral trade by 2030 ... We shall now look at non-petroleum bilateral trade of USD 100 billion by 2030, which means doubling our non-petroleum trade from USD 48 billion today to USD 100 billion in the next seven years,” Goyal told reporters after the meeting. sanitary and phyto-sanitary and technical barriers to trade issues; trade remedies; investment facilitation; and economic cooperation.

 

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. In the meeting, it was also agreed to set up various committees and sub-committees and technical councils with regard to the implementation of various provisions of the trade agreement such as trade in goods; customs facilitation; rules of origin;