By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : India was the United Arab Emirates’ second biggest source of import, after China, in 2007, according to new figures.
According to data released by the country’s Federal Customs Authority (FCA), China and India were followed by Japan, the US, Germany, Italy, Britain, Saudi Arabia, France and Switzerland as the top 10 import sources, with total import from these countries reaching 253 billion dirhams ($68.9 billion), the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
This represents 63.6 percent of the UAE’s total import in 2007.
The Gulf nation’s non-oil foreign trade reached about 1.8 trillion dirhams ($490 billion) during the period from 2003 to 2007, the figures showed.
Imports accounted for 1.2 trillion dirhams ($326.8 billion) while exports and re-exports stood at 3.1 billion dirhams ($844 million) and 3.4 billion dirhams ($926 million) respectively.
FCA director general Mohammed Khalifa bin Fahd Al Muhairi said that UAE foreign trade by value rose by 109 percent to 563 billion dirhams ($153.3 billion) between 2003 and 2007.
Citing statistics, Al Muhairi said that the UAE embarked on trade transactions with some 198 countries in six continents. Asia and the Pacific region topped as trade partners with trading volumes of 46 percent, followed by Europe with 27 percent and North Africa with 12 percent.
The Americas, the Caribbean as well as east, south, west and central Africa, accounted for 7.9 percent and 3 percent at a total amount of 44.4 billion dirhams ($12 billion), 16.5 billion dirhams ($4.5 billion) and 6.2 billion dirhams ($1.6 billion) respectively, while the free trade zones in the country accounted for 1.4 percent at a total amount of 7.9 billion dirhams ($2.1 billion) in 2007.
India, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, China, Jebel Ali Free Zone (near Dubai), Iraq and Switzerland in that order were the top 10 countries for UAE non-oil export, accounting for 24 billion dirhams ($6.5 billion) in 2007.
The figure represents 66 percent of the total non-oil exports, according to the statistics, which also shows that the top 10 countries for UAE’s re-export during the same period were Iran, India, Iraq, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Belgium and Kuwait in that order.
These countries accounted for 80.5 billion dirhams ($21.9 billion), which makes up 62.6 percent of the total re-export from the UAE, the figures showed.