The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has assured to address India’s concerns related to the compliance of import regulations applicable on the imports of silver products, platinum alloys, and dry dates. This Indian commerce ministry confirmed on Tuesday after a joint committee meet held under the ambit of India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Indian officials stressed that the imports of those products are rising sharply, and in their belief, this rise in imports is being justified by duty-preferential rates which the agreement had undertaken long back. So, while discussing, according to Indian officials, they requested the UAE side to verify rigorously whether the origin rules specified in that agreement were being followed or not since they also stated that such origin rules should not be avoided at any cost.

Specifically, the sharp jump in silver import has sounded an alarm in the Indians, who have gone on to question the authorities despite the stringent value addition norms accompanying CEPA. An official statement reports that the UAE has given assurances that it would consider the issues raised by India as a collaborative gesture to arrive at a solution on the expressed grievances.

The CEPA was signed in February 2022 and entered into force May of the same year, thereby allowing India’s duty-free unlimited imports of gold, silver, platinum, and diamonds over the coming years. In this context, the new framework will try to strengthen bilateral trade and improve economic cooperation between the two nations.

Both countries reiterated their commitment to achieving the $100 billion non-oil trade target several years ahead of the 2030 deadline. Agenda included discussions on all facets of their bilateral cooperation, including ways to strengthen trade relations. India has now established the UAE as its third-largest trading partner; over the first seven months of the financial year, its exports to the UAE were at $11.45 billion, and imports at $31.14 billion.

With this in mind, both parties agreed to form a technical experts group that would promote the prompt and smooth exchange of trade data. It would lead to harmonizing statistical methodologies toward the more exact and comparable analysis of bilateral trade data towards more mutual understanding and cooperation.

This is reflected in these talks as a further demonstration of the UAE’s insistence on promoting an open and balanced trading practice essential for the fostering of long-term economic ties with India.