Statement on UAE's non-oil foreign trade, H1 2024

His Excellency Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade

“The United Arab Emirates has placed foreign trade at the center of our economic agenda, recognizing its pivotal role in driving industrial output, enhancing the global competitiveness of our products and services, and catalyzing innovation. As a direct result of this conviction and guided by our leadership's forward-thinking vision and commitment to global collaboration, our non-oil foreign trade continues to set new milestones. The value of our non-oil trade has remained on a robust growth trajectory, reaching an all-time high of AED1.395 trillion in the first half of 2024 – the sixth consecutive half-year period of foreign trade growth.

“This new milestone marks an 11.2% increase in foreign trade compared to H1 in 2023 and underscores the success of the UAE's economic diversification strategies. This is best embodied by the increase of our non-oil exports, which grew 25% compared to H1 2023 to reach AED256.4 billion.

“Key sectors, including gold, silver, jewelry, oils, perfumes, aluminum, copper wires, and iron products, have led this impressive surge in non-oil exports, demonstrating our enhanced global competitiveness. Our re-export operations also increased, highlighting our status as a global trade hub and reflecting international confidence in the UAE as a reliable trade partner and facilitator.

“Moreover, our performance defies the global trend of slowing trade growth, which averaged just 1.5% in the first half of this year. This achievement shows the UAE economy's resilience, which is the result of our steadfast commitment to building strong, productive public-private partnerships as well as fostering collaborative growth with emerging global economies. “Importantly, it's clear that our Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) program is playing a central role in achieving these record results. Bilateral trade with CEPA partners India and Türkiye grew 15% and 9.8% respectively and, together, now account for 11.7% of our total foreign trade. As we continue to expand and finalize more CEPA deals, we anticipate further growth, steering us toward our ambitious target of AED4 trillion in non-oil foreign trade by 2031.

“As we look to the future, we will ensure that the UAE continues to leverage the power of trade to drive sustainable, long-term economic growth and prosperity for our nation.”