UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi interview with Bloomberg TV at WEF

January 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM GMT+4

The United Arab Emirates sees global trade growing this year, despite US President Donald Trump threatening to impose major tariffs on imports.

“The momentum in foreign trade and global trade is growing and I’m very optimistic” that will continue in 2025, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi said to Bloomberg Television on Thursday.

“At the end of the day, Trump is a business man and he wants to ensure that deals are going to be done throughout the year,” Al Zeyoudi said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

For the past three years, the UAE has pushed to build trade ties with countries throughout the world. It’s signed economic agreements with over 20 countries since announcing a plan in 2021 to target fast-growing nations. It’s aiming to attract $150 billion in foreign investment as part of that.

The latest round of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements or CEPAs happened this month with New Zealand, Malaysia and Kenya, Al Zeyoudi said.

While there have been global trade disruptions over the past four years, “we’ve seen that the business is maneuvering and adopting itself,” he said. “Most of the world learned to be more resilient after Covid-19 and after the geopolitics and the conflicts that have happened.”