This came during a meeting that took place in the UAE between Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Damian O’Connor, New Zealand Minister of Commerce and Export Growth.
Non-oil trade between the UAE and New Zealand amounted to $805 million in 2022, a growth of 7 percent compared to 2021 and 23 percent compared to 2020, and the UAE has become New Zealand’s first trading partner in the Arab world since 2021.
Al-Zeyoudi said that New Zealand is the UAE’s most prominent partner in the Oceania region, and that the two countries share a common vision on the importance of open, rules-based trade as a catalyst for sustainable economic growth.
He added, “The UAE is seeking to explore ways to deepen relations with New Zealand as part of plans to expand the country’s trading partner network, with the aim of providing new markets and promising investment opportunities for the business community in the country, by launching initial discussions to explore the possibility of launching talks to reach a comprehensive economic partnership agreement that brings together the two friendly countries.” .
For his part, Damien O’Connor said, “Discussions aimed at launching bilateral talks to reach a comprehensive economic partnership agreement are an important first step towards concluding a potential strategic agreement with the UAE, which is one of New Zealand’s main export destinations and an important bilateral partner in the region.”
The UAE is working to expand its network of trading partners around the world, through the program of comprehensive economic partnership agreements, and the country has already concluded 5 agreements with India, Israel, Indonesia, Turkey and Cambodia, while similar agreements will be signed later with another group of countries of strategic importance on a map. International Trade.
Through these agreements, the UAE aims to stimulate its foreign trade with the world and contribute to doubling it to 4 trillion dirhams and doubling the value of UAE non-oil exports to 800 billion dirhams, in implementation of the vision of “We Are the Emirates 2031”.
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