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Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has said that India's exports to the UAE are expected to rise by about 60 per cent to reach $50 billion by 2026-27 from $31.3 billion at present on the back of the free trade agreement between the countries. He said that trade between India and the UAE has grown significantly after the implementation of the trade agreement on May 1 last year.

Barthwal said a lot of trade is happening through the preferential route of the trade pact. He said ‘we would like traders of the two countries to take advantage of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). He further said that there is a joint trade committee which looks after the implementation of this trade pact and if any issue would come both sides would jointly resolve that. He added that the issue of gold was addressed by this committee.

The India-UAE CEPA which was signed between the two nations on 18 February 2022, officially came into force on May 1 last year. India's exports to the UAE in 2022-23 rose by 11.8 per cent to $31.3 billion, while imports grew by 18.8 per cent to $53.2 billion in the last fiscal due to high inbound shipments of oil. Under the free trade agreement domestic exporters in various sectors like textiles, agriculture, dry fruits, gems and jewellery are getting duty-free access to the UAE market.