Electronics, consumer goods go straight to UAE

2.54 billion USD is the export revenue of phones and components that Vietnam earned from exporting to the UAE market in the first 9 months of 2024. Next is machinery, equipment, spare parts, computers and components with 735 million USD; footwear, textiles with about 275 million USD...

A sharp increase in orders for electronics and consumer goods has brought our country's 9-month export turnover to the UAE to 4.3 billion USD, an increase of nearly 43% over the same period in 2023.

The Vietnam - UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), once ratified and put into effect by both countries, will open a "big road" for exports to accelerate further.

CEPA was negotiated in just over a year - a record short time in the history of FTA negotiations. The main contents of the Agreement include trade in goods, trade in services, investment facilitation , rules of origin, intellectual property, digital trade, trade defense, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBT), customs and trade facilitation, etc.

The UAE is currently Vietnam's largest export market and second largest trading partner in West Asia. According to data from the General Department of Customs, in the period 2018 - 2023, total trade between the two countries reached an average of about 5 billion USD/year. From the beginning of the year to the end of September 2024, bilateral trade between Vietnam and the UAE reached nearly 5 billion USD, an increase of more than 1.4 billion USD over the same period in 2023.

 Regarding trade balance, Vietnam always has a large trade surplus with the UAE market, about 3 - 4 billion USD/year.

Vietnam and the UAE agreed to make a strong commitment to trade liberalization. In particular, the UAE committed to gradually eliminating tariffs on 99% of Vietnam's exports to the UAE; Vietnam also committed to gradually eliminating tariffs on 98.5% of the UAE's exports to Vietnam.

The Department of Asia-Africa Markets (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the UAE committed to eliminating tariffs as soon as the Agreement takes effect for many key industries and those with great export potential of Vietnam such as consumer goods (phones, computers, textiles, footwear), agricultural products, seafood, wood and wood products, etc.

These are Vietnam's strengths and the tariff reduction from CEPA will help these products compete better on price and expand market share in the UAE - a market with high demand for fashion and quality consumer goods.

“The UAE will open its doors to almost all products that Vietnam has export advantages in, creating a favorable basis for promoting our exports to this market and from there to Middle Eastern countries,” affirmed Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the UAE is one of the largest consumers of Vietnamese pangasius. Vietnam is the largest supplier of pangasius in the UAE market (accounting for 40-50% of the market share), with the main product being frozen pangasius fillets. The UAE has many suitable factors to become one of Vietnam's important trading partners. This country is the leading economy among Arab countries and ranks 17th out of 61 highly competitive economies in the world, with per capita seafood consumption higher than the world average, the agricultural economic structure accounts for less than 1% and 90% of the country's seafood consumption comes from imports.

As for wood and wood products, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, this item will also benefit significantly from CEPA. Most wood products and interior decoration items in the UAE must be imported. With rapid urbanization and the increasing appearance of high-end real estate projects in the UAE, the demand for wood products, especially furniture and construction materials, is very large. Currently, Vietnam ranks 15th in the list of countries exporting furniture to the UAE (after China, Germany, India...).

Regarding agricultural products, products such as cashew nuts, pepper and honey will have the opportunity to penetrate more strongly into the UAE and Middle East markets, thanks to tax reduction.

The bilateral trade target of 10 billion USD is not far away.

The UAE has a population of about 9.35 million people, a GDP of about 415 billion USD, and a GDP per capita of 44,315 USD/person/year. The total trade scale of the Middle East market is about 2,000 billion USD.

The Vietnam Trade Office in the UAE said that the UAE has to import most of its food, consumer goods, and furniture to meet the needs of its people. Therefore, this market has almost no trade barriers. However, goods imported into the UAE must meet food hygiene and safety standards. In addition, for food and beverage groups, cosmetics, etc., a Halal certificate is required.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien assessed that with CEPA, the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the UAE will certainly increase and this is an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to catch up with, and even surpass, other partners in this important market.

In addition, the economic and trade structures of the two countries are complementary. Therefore, CEPA is a favorable premise for Vietnam to promote the export of its strengths to the UAE and then to countries in the Middle East, West Asia and Africa.

With experience in signing and implementing 16 FTAs, Vietnam and the UAE agreed to effectively implement CEPA to create a breakthrough in trade exchange, further open the market, aiming to bring bilateral trade turnover to over 10 billion USD in the coming time.

Thuy Linh