Opinion Trade UAE-Australia trade deal will help business take off Tariff savings will help to grow multi-billion bilateral trade across many industries By Jacob Berman October 4, 2024, 8:14 AM Alamy/Chet Frohlich Sydney's harbour and Opera House: A new UAE-Australia trade deal is set to increase business and tourism Emirates Airlines and Australia’s Qantas formed a code-sharing partnership more than 11 years ago. By October 2021, when the partnership was extended for another five years, more than 13 million passengers had travelled on the joint network, clocking up more than 87 billon kilometres. By any standard, it has been a profitable and mutually beneficial partnership. Last month marked another defining moment in the relationship between the UAE and Australia. Don Farrell, the Australian trade minister, announced the country has reached a trade deal with the UAE, the government’s first since coming to office in May 2022. This is good news for both sides of what was already an established trade corridor. Both want to diversify and decarbonise their economies and create jobs. Australia and the UAE have enjoyed stable and positive diplomatic and trade relationships for many years, notably in agriculture. The benefits should be accelerated by enhanced market access, tariff liberalisation, simplification of customs procedures and clarified regulatory frameworks. Olives grown on the South Eastern and South Western Australian seaboard may now find themselves on more UAE tables if the current 5 percent duty is dropped. Already, the UAE is Australia’s fourth most important market for fresh fruit, importing more than 1,300 tonnes of apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums annually. It is a similar story in the livestock sector, which contributes more than A$1 billion (US$680 million)in export earnings to the Australian economy. Unsurprisingly the UAE ranks as Australia’s largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East Estimated tariff savings stand at A$135 million ($92 million) in the first year alone, increasing to A$160 million ($109 million) every year once the trade agreement is fully implemented. More than 300 Australian companies operate in the UAE. Many use it as a regional base, given its advanced transport, financial and trade infrastructure. Investment flows are also thriving. UAE investment in Australia is close to A$12.7 billion ($8.6 billion). The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, has invested in ports, the TransGrid electricity network and the Queensland Motorway project. QIA looks at investments in Australia and Asia UAE adds New Zealand to long list of trade partners Western Australia looks to Gulf for green deals In May this year, Mubadala, another Abu Dhabi wealth fund, alongside Global Infrastructure Partners, announced the largest investment ever made in the Australian fertiliser industry. The A$6.4 billion ($4.4 billion) sector will adopt clean technologies such as solar energy and green hydrogen enhancing food security for up to 90 million people. Arada, a UAE-based property developer, has announced a $2.5 billion investment in Australia’s housing market. Starting with projects in Sydney’s Castle Hill, Arada plans to build 2,500 homes and incorporate green and retail spaces. Unsurprisingly the UAE ranks as Australia’s largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East. Two-way bilateral trade is today worth A$9.9 billion ($6.7 billion) and investment flows stand at A$20.6 billion ($14.1 billion), with both expected to rise significantly. With its open market access and ease of doing business, the UAE acts as a regional food trans-shipment hub. This explains why 30 Western Australian food and beverage companies participated at the Gulfood exhibition in the Western Australian pavillion. Most likely participants travelled there via the Emirates and Qantas codeshare, with fresh produce benefitting from air freight availability and regular direct flights from Perth to the UAE. Murdoch and Curtin, two Western Australian universities, have campuses in Dubai specialising in agriculture, food security, health and advanced technology. Space industries are another area of mutual interest. The UAE Space Agency is pioneering deep rover missions to areas like the Asteroid Belt. These journeys of scientific discovery can now draw on Western Australia’s world leading capabilities in remote operations, automation and ultra-low bandwidth satellite communication. Jacob Berman is CEO and client coverage head at Standard Chartered Australia