Two-way trade between the GCC countries and the European Union has exceeded EUR143 billion ($175.5 billion) in recent times, according to a senior official of the European Union visiting the UAE to attend the Annual Investment Meeting taking place in Dubai from April 9 to 11.

This makes the European Union as the largest trading partner of the GCC, when counted as a single economy.

Ewa Synowiec, chief advisor to the European Commission and the General Directorate of Trade, said foreign investment in the European Union amounts to 36 per cent of GDP annually compared to 46 per cent abroad.

The eighth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) will feature 25 federal ministers, 19 mayors, eight heads of organisations, one head of parliament and investors will see the signing of a number of agreements and announcements that will help countries boost the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

In an interview ahead of the AIM, Synowiec elaborated her organisation’s vision on the investment and the volume of international trade and investments between them and the GCC countries in general and the UAE in particular.

“GCC is an important trade partner for the EU. In 2017 the EU overall trade with GCC reached around €143 billion, making the region EU's 6th most important trading partner and 4th most important export market (with €100 billion in exports). EU-GCC trade has been steadily growing between 2007 and 2017: total trade increased by 54 per cent in ten years. The EU remains the number one trading partner for the GCC,” said Synowiec

“EU's exports to Gulf Cooperation Council countries are diverse but focused on industrial products (91 per cent) such as power generation plants, railway locomotives and aircrafts as well as electrical machinery and mechanical appliances.

“Machinery and transport equipment (€ 47.7 billion, 48.0 per cent) and chemicals (€ 10.5 billion, 11 per cent) were the main categories of products exported in 2016. EU imports from GCC countries are mainly mineral fuels and mining products (€ 28.7 billion, 66 per cent) and pearls / precious metals (€ 2.8 billion, 6.3 per cent),” she added.

“Trade in services has similarly seen growth with total services reaching almost EUR40 billion in 2016, which put GCC at 4.7 per cent of the EU total trade in services,” Synowiec noted.

“The UAE represent by far the biggest export market for the EU in the GCC region with exports amounting to EUR42 billion in 2017 and accounting for 2.3 per cent of total EU exports. This means that UAE were the 7th biggest destination for EU products in 2017.

“Total trade in goods between the EU and the UAE amounted to EUR52.6 billion. The most important goods in EU exports were: machinery and transport equipment (more than half), manufactured goods and chemicals.

“The biggest share in imports from the UAE to the EU market have mineral fuels, lubricants and other related materials as well as manufactured goods,” Synowiec added. – TradeArabia News Service