Indian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sunjay Sudhir on Sunday (March 27) said that he is confident that the bilateral trade between the two countries will only move from strength to strength after the signing of the free trade agreement, India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
“Today, both UAE and India are among the top three trading partners of each other and our bilateral trade is almost USD 60 billion. This is expected to reach USD 100 billion in the next five years,” Sudhir told ANI.
The Indian Ambassador to the UAE further added, “This is going to open new areas of trade. Our exports are about USD 26 million and 90 per cent of those exports will automatically become zero duty on the day CEPA is implemented. On an average, there is about five per cent customs duty which will go down to zero. We will have a big advantage as compared to other competitors,”.
The benefits of CEPA will not just be limited to India but it will also help the gulf country get more foreign investment.
“A lot of labour-intensive areas will be benefited from this agreement. Jewels, leather goods, textile, engineering products and sports products will benefit from it. This will also increase Foreign Investment in India. In the last seven years, the amount of foreign investment has increased and UAE is among the major investors from Gulf countries. This will be increased further,” said Sudhir.
The comments were made amidst the backdrop of the six-month-long Dubai Expo that commenced in October last year witnessed the participation of as many as 192 countries.
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