UAE-China non-oil trade exceeds $470bn in past decade

Abu Dhabi, UAE – The non-oil trade between the UAE and China increased by 78.5 percent from 2012 to 2021, totaling AED223.5 billion ($60.85 billion) by the end of 2021 compared to AED125.1 billion ($34 billion) in 2012.
The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) said during the reporting period, value of their non-oil trade exceeded AED1.72 trillion ($470 billion).
It includes imports valued at AED1.53 trillion ($420 billion), non-oil exports valued at AED64 billion ($17.42  billion), and re-exports valued at AED121 billion ($33 billion).
The FCSC’s figures also showed that the non-oil trade exchange between the UAE and China in the first half of 2022 totaled AED118.4 billion, consisting of imports valued at AED102.7 billion.
While non-oil exports valued at AED5.5 billion, re-exports valued at AED9.8 billion. The year 2017 recorded the highest trade exchange in the last decade worth AED195.6 billion, a rise of 15 percent compared to 2016.
Telecommunications devices topped the list of goods imported from China over the past year, amounting to AED70 billion.
It was followed by data processing equipment at AED23.6 billion, medical vaccines at AED4.1 billion, display screens at AED2.5 billion, and headphones and amplifiers at AED2.5 billion.
In the list of top five goods exported to China, ethylene polymers came in the first place with AED4 billion, followed by propylene polymers with AED1.9 billion, rapeseed oil with AED1.4 billion, copper scraps with AED600 million, and residues of fatty oil extraction with AED570 million.
In last year’s list of re-exports to China, telecommunications devices came in the first place with AED8.3 billion, followed by data processing equipment with AED2.09 billion, vehicles with some AED1.5 billion, raw nickel with AED1.3 billion, and car accessories with AED600 million.