Dubai: Dubai’s trade with European Union (EU) swelled up to Dh77.2 billion in the first six months of 2012, comparing to Dh77 billion in the same period last year, Dubai Customs announce on Sunday.
The value of Dubai’s imports from the EU countries reached Dh61.2 billion during the first six months of this year, almost the same value recorded same period in 2011.
However, Dubai’s exports to the EU members state reached Dh3.7 billion during the first six months of 2012 compared to 3.2 billion during the same period in 2011.
The UAE’s openness to the world markets, combined with its capacity to deal with diverse consumer products, has helped to address the trade growth in the country, said Ahmad Butti Ahmad, CEO of Dubai Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (DPCFZC).
Such indicators reflect the openness of the UAE economy to new markets worldwide in overall trade activity, including imports, exports and re-exports, he added.
A recent Customs data said that Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade swelled by 12 per cent to Dh600 billion in the first half of 2012 compared to Dh535 billion in the same period last year, Dubai Customs announced last Monday
While the value of re-exports to the EU states stood at Dh12.3billion during the first six months of this year compared with Dh11.3 billion achieved during the same period last year, Dubai Customs revealed.
Dubai’s trade exchange with EU states, especially with the eastern Europe countries, continued to achieve record growth rates such as with Estonia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland in which it saw a significant increase of 369 per cent, 332 per cent, 225 per cent, 77 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
Valuable imports
Furniture, petroleum oils, tobacco, telecommunication machinery and instruments, sun flower seeds and wires are the main valuable imports for Dubai’s from the eastern Europe countries. While its major exports to these countries were polyethylene, cigarettes, raw aluminum, plastic, printing films, glassware, acoustic devices, ceramics, washing & bath basins.
On the other side, Dubai’s major re-exported items to the eastern Europe states were auto-spare parts and accessories, engineering materials used in planning, telecommunication instrument & machines, automobiles and vehicles
Irfan Al Hassani, a UAE-based economist told Gulf News, that Dubai ports function as a re-export hub for the entire Gulf region with its port infrastructure highly praised for operating to global standards. Indeed DP World is the world’s third largest port operator and sets these standards. Dubai is the Hong Kong or Singapore of the Middle East.
“Trade facilities and well planned infrastructure, including the airports and ports, in addition to logistics services, have all made Dubai the preferred business centre in the region,” he said.
