With the signing of the Vietnam-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the UAE will open its doors to almost all Vietnamese products with export advantages, typically agricultural products, seafood, wooden furniture, consumer goods, etc.

The Vietnam – United Arab Emirates – UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed after just over a year of negotiations has opened up opportunities to accelerate exports for many advantageous Vietnamese industries to the UAE and Middle Eastern countries.

Commenting on export prospects when there is an FTA, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said: “As soon as CEPA comes into effect, it will create a favorable basis for promoting our exports to this market and from there to Middle Eastern countries. Accordingly, the UAE will open its doors to almost all Vietnamese products with export advantages.”

The first advantageous item is agricultural products. The products Agriculture such as cashew nuts, pepper and honey will have a stronger opportunity to penetrate the UAE and Middle East markets thanks to reduced tariffs. This is an area with great demand for high-quality agricultural products, especially clean and organic products as well as Halal certified products.

Second, consumer goods including textiles, footwear, electronics, etc. are products that Vietnam has strengths in, and tariff reductions from CEPA will help these products compete better on price and expand market share in the UAE.

Third is seafood. With the high demand for seafood in the UAE, especially shrimp and fish products, the Vietnamese seafood industry will have more opportunities to increase exports and increase product value thanks to incentives from CEPA.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said: UAE is one of the customers that consumes a lot of Vietnamese pangasius. Vietnam is also the largest supplier of pangasius in this market, accounting for 1-40% of the market share in the UAE, mainly frozen pangasius fillet

The UAE has a series of suitable factors to become one of Vietnam's important trade partners such as: Leading in economy among Arab countries and ranked 1th out of 17 highly competitive economies in the world, per capita seafood consumption is higher than the world average, agricultural economic structure accounts for less than 61%, so up to 1% of the country's seafood consumption comes from imports.

For wood and wood products, Ministry of Industry and Trade It is calculated that this is an item that will also benefit significantly from CEPA. Most wooden products and interior decoration items in the UAE have to be imported. With rapid urbanization and high-end real estate projects in the UAE, the demand for wooden products, especially furniture and construction materials, is very large.

Vietnam Trade Office in UAE, furniture product revenue in this market reached 4 billion USD in 2023, expected to grow 4,12% annually (period 2023-2027). In which, the largest segment is living room furniture, worth up to 1,08 billion USD in 2023.

Show Vietnam is ranked 15th in the list of furniture exporters to the UAE, after enterprises from China, Germany, India...

With CEPA in place between the two sides, the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the UAE will certainly increase, creating an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to catch up with, and even surpass, other partners in this important market.

The Middle East market is worth up to 2.000 billion USD, creating a large space for export industries to exploit. However, Minister Dien noted: “Enterprises need to proactively learn about the commitments of the Agreement as well as understand the business practices of the UAE market in particular and the Middle East in general. In particular, for Arab countries, the requirement for Halal certification is very important.”

To realize the commitments in the Vietnam - UAE CEPA, the Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to develop a detailed CEPA Implementation Plan, focusing on three main groups of tasks:

Including: disseminating and popularizing information about the CEPA Agreement and the content of the agreement's commitments, the Ministry will train officials of state management agencies and the business community on the specific commitments of CEPA, ensuring a clear and correct understanding of the content and how to apply the commitments, thereby helping to fully and effectively implement the Agreement. 

Regarding the work of building laws and institutions: The Ministry of Industry and Trade will coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to develop new or amend and supplement legal documents and submit them to competent authorities for approval and promulgation in accordance with the roadmap committed in the CEPA Agreement, including the Decree of Goverment on the promulgation of the CEPA Special Preferential Import Tariff Schedule applicable to the UAE, Circular on rules of origin in CEPA. 

Regarding the work of improving competitiveness and developing human resources: The Ministry of Industry and Trade will coordinate with ministries and branches to develop support programs, improve competitiveness for industries and businesses, penetrate new export markets in the region and meet requirements in importing countries, including Halal certification. 

Source: Vietnam.vn