How UAE-India Trade Corridor Helps Keep Prices Low, Quality High For Imports To Dubai

A trade agreement signed by UAE and India in 2022 has helped to keep the cost of imported Indian products low in Dubai, according to a local retailer. Nilesh Ved, Chairman and CEO of Apparel Group, said that the partnership helped reduce the cost of imports and likely increased sales of these products.

The UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed in 2022 and opened a mutually-beneficial corridor which increased trade between the two countries by over 20.5 percent since then.

“Most of the items that we bring into the UAE, that is made in India, are free of duties,” he told Khaleej Times.“Earlier the duty was 5 per cent but since the CEPA agreement, it went down to zero. This significantly lowers our costs, which means the retail price also comes down ; it's a win-win situation.”

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The Apparel group, which was established in 1996, sells over 85 brands of products including bags, shoes, clothes and cookware. He added that since the agreement, the group has seen sales go up.“Because the price is lower, naturally the increase in sales of Indian products is higher,” he said.“The quality has also improved.”

Nilesh was speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai-India Business Forum, which was held in Mumbai to coincide with the first India visit of Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The forum brought together entrepreneurs and decision-makers of both markets together to explore mutually beneficial ventures.

During the forum, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, UAE's Minister of Economy, pointed out that the trade between both countries hit above $65 billion in 2024 in non-oil trade. The CEPA agreement had aimed to take that figure to $100 billion by 2030 – a feat that many experts say will be achieved well ahead of time.

According to Nilesh, Dubai offered a gateway for many Indian businesses to expand into the world.

One of the Indian entrepreneurs that attended the forum, Juzar Potia, said that he was hoping to expand his STEM education venture, Duck Learning India, to Dubai.“I met a lot of Dubai-based companies with whom I had fruitful discussions,” he said.“Hopefully, with the support of the Dubai International Chambers, I will be able to expand my business into Dubai soon.”

“With over 200 nationalities living in the city, it is the perfect market for Indian business to test the waters,” Nilesh said.“Whether they want to expand into Philippines or Spain or Egypt, they can test the product with these nationalities in Dubai and fine-tune their strategies before making a leap into that market.”

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