India, UAE Hold Talks On Market Access, Data Sharing And Gold Imports

India and the United Arab Emirates have held wide-ranging discussions to strengthen economic cooperation, focusing on issues such as market access, data sharing, gold import quotas and anti-dumping matters, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. The deliberations took place during a meeting of the Joint Committee under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the bilateral free trade pact implemented to deepen long-term commercial ties.

According to the ministry, both sides conducted a detailed review of the progress made since the CEPA came into force. Discussions covered market access concerns, data-sharing mechanisms, allocation of the Gold Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ), services-related issues, Rules of Origin compliance and matters linked to BIS licensing. India also briefed the UAE on its recent decision to distribute Gold TRQ through a transparent competitive bidding system.

The meeting further addressed regulatory cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector, challenges related to Certificates of Origin, and the proposed signing of a memorandum of understanding on Food Safety and Technical Requirements between India’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.

Bilateral trade between the two countries has surpassed USD 100 billion in 2024–25, marking a 19.6 per cent increase over the previous year. India and the UAE have set a target to boost non-oil and non-precious metal trade to USD 100 billion by 2030.