India, UAE hold 3rd CEPA panel meet; bilateral trade tops $100 billion in FY25

India and the United Arab Emirates held the third meeting of the Joint Committee under the India–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the commerce ministry said on Thursday.

During the meeting, both sides welcomed the strong growth in bilateral trade, which crossed USD 100.06 billion in FY 2024–25, registering a robust 19.6% growth.

The meeting, held in New Delhi, was co-chaired by Commerce Department Additional Secretary Ajay Bhadoo and UAE Assistant Undersecretary for International Trade Affairs Juma Al Kait, the commerce ministry said in a statement.

Officials from both countries conducted a comprehensive review of the implementation of CEPA and discussed a range of issues, including market access, data sharing, allocation of gold tariff-rate quota (TRQ), anti-dumping matters, services, Rules of Origin and BIS licensing.

India also briefed the UAE on its decision to allocate the gold TRQ through a transparent competitive bidding process.

The two sides reviewed recent high-level engagements, including meetings between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi in Mumbai and Dubai.

They reaffirmed their commitment to boosting non-oil and non-precious metal trade as part of the shared goal of achieving USD 100 billion in such trade by 2030, the ministry said.

Regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals, resolution of issues related to certificates of origin, BIS coordination and early signing of a proposed MoU on food safety and technical requirements between India’s APEDA and the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment also came up for discussion.

The meeting concluded with both sides agreeing to enhance trade facilitation, regulatory collaboration and data sharing, and to hold a meeting of the Services Sub-Committee soon.

The visiting UAE delegation also met Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal to discuss steps to improve utilisation of CEPA by businesses on both sides, the statement added.