UAE-Israel economic partnership deal comes into force on April 1

ABU DHABI: The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed between the UAE and Israel in May last year will take effect on April 1, the UAE’s Ministry of Economy said in a statement on Thursday.

Tariffs will be removed or reduced on more than 96 percent of product lines, which cover 99 percent of the current value of traded goods between the UAE and Israel. The UAE-Israel Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was signed on May 31, 2022.

The UAE-Israel CEPA is now the second of the UAE’s new foreign-trade deals to be ratified following the successful rollout of the UAE-India CEPA in May 2022.

In addition to the new tariff structures, the agreement with Israel removes unnecessary barriers to trade, improves market access for services suppliers, opens opportunities in government procurement, provides a platform for SMEs to expand internationally, establishes parameters for digital trade, protects intellectual property and creates transparent trade remedy mechanisms.

The CEPA is designed to push the UAE-Israel non-oil bilateral trade from the $1.3 billion recorded in 2021 to $10 billion by the end of the decade. In 2022, bilateral non-oil trade reached $2.49 billion, a 90 percent increase on 2021 total, with re-exports from Israel growing 71.2 percent and non-oil exports to Israel climbing 48.6 percent.

The UAE-Israel CEPA is a part of the UAE’s new trade agenda and efforts to double the size of economy from AED1.4 trillion to AED3 trillion by 2030.

The UAE has now concluded CEPAs with India, Israel, Indonesia, Turkiye and Georgia.