Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday that India and the United Arab Emirates are soon likely to start making payments for bilateral trade in local currencies, that is, Rupees and Dirhams, and will target more than double their petroleum trade to $100 billion by 2030.
The Central Bank of the UAE and the Reserve Bank of India are in active dialogue to promote trade in local currencies.
Goyal l said at a media briefing after the first joint committee meeting of the India – UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that ” Both the countries made notable progress. The Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the UAE have been in very active dialogue.”
As India and the UAE signed CEapA in February 2022, it came into effect on May 1st, 2022. In the last year, the two countries have set up many working groups to resolve the issues related to trade and investments on both sides.
Moreover, Goyal expressed hope that a decision on Rupee – Dirham trade would be taken soon and stated, “Both the countries have made notable progress on this issue, the central banks are in touch, and our finance minister is very supportive.”
UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi co-chaired the first joint committee meeting of the India – UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
Al Zeouydi said, addressing a joint media conference, that trade ties between the two countries have overgrown following the signing of CEPA in 2022.
Furthermore, under the India – UAE CEPA, the goods domain, the UAE wiped out duties on 97.4 percent of its tariff lines corresponding to 99 percent of imports from India. Moreover, India has also obtained immediate duty elimination over 80 percent of its tariff lines corresponding to 90 percent of exports in vague terms of India.
Al Zeyoudi added, “There are many areas where we are looking to provide a further fillip to our robust trading ties.”
During the meeting, the two countries agreed to more than double non-petroleum trade to $100 billion by 2030.
Goyal concluded by saying, ” We have mutually agreed on a target of $100 billion bilateral trade by 2030, ” adding that the $100 billion target does not include oil trade and “Petroleum trade will also be increased.”
