MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI: India’s concerns over a surge in silver imports from UAE after implementation of a bilateral trade agreement is expected to be taken up during a joint meeting next week.
“We have a joint trade committee which works on these issues. Next week they have a meeting in the UAE and that will be taken up over there. I have already discussed that issue with my counterpart Thani bin Ahhmed Al Zeyoudi and the UAE has assured that there will be nothing that will hurt India business interests and trade interests,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal told reporters.
Silver imports from UAE soared from $29 million 2022-23 to $1.7 billion during the last financial year, amid concerns of gaps in the implementation of rules of origin.
The two govts are, however, upbeat on the progress made by the trade agreement. India and the UAE are also working on inter-linking two national payment platforms – UPI (India) and AANI (UAE) – to facilitate seamless cross border transactions between the two countries.
At a press conference, Goyal also announced that India and the UAE would set up a food corridor, investing over $2 billion over two to two-and-a-half years, which will help Indian farmers earn higher income and create more jobs. The discussions also included plans to set up food parks in the country.
“It has been under discussion for a very long time that the UAE would like to invest in setting up food processing facilities in India to enable the availability of high-quality products suitable to the UAE, using Indian farmers’ products and to be sold in the UAE,” the minister said after a meeting of India-UAE High-Level Task Force on Investment.
Without giving any timeline, Goyal said that the investments from UAE may touch $100 billion and flow into multiple sectors, including infrastructure and manufacturing. UAE had in 2018 committed to invest up to $75 billion in India. UAE is India’s third largest trading partner behind the US and China, with bilateral trade estimated at $85 billion in 2023-24. UAE is the second largest export destination for Indian goods, with exports pegged at $35.6 billion and a trade deficit of $12.4 billion, according to commerce department statistics.
