ABU DHABI: China is the UAE’s leading trade partner in terms of non-oil commodities, accounting for 9.7 per cent of its total non-oil trade in 2018, valued at over $43 billion, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, has said.
In an interview with WAM on the occasion of the official visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to China as head of a high-level UAE delegation, Al Mansouri said that China was the UAE’s leading source of commodities imports in 2018, accounting for 15 per cent of its imports, valued at over $38 billion. He also pointed out that China is the source of 27 per cent of the UAE’s imports from Asia, and is ranked 11th internationally in terms of receiving non-oil exports and re-exported goods from the UAE. The UAE’s non-oil foreign trade with China in 2018 represented 16 per cent of its total non-oil foreign trade with Asian countries, he added.
He stressed that the UAE is in the list of 25 leading countries that attract Chinese exports and the first in the Arab world, accounting for 29 per cent of Chinese exports to Arab countries. The UAE is China’s most important trade partner in the Arab world, accounting for 26 per cent of total non-oil-foreign trade between China and Arab countries.
Al Mansouri explained that the UAE accounts for 36 per cent of China’s export of advanced technology products to Arab countries, and is in the list of the 20 leading countries that accept Chinese exports, as it accounts for 1.1 percent of China’s total international commodity exports. The UAE provided 16 per cent of Arab non-oil exports to China in 2018, he noted.
