AUSTRALIA has its first free trade deal with a Middle Eastern nation with the Australia–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (A-UAECEPA) having begun on 1 October 2025
Negotiations for the agreement began in late 2023 and were concluded in September 2024, before being officially in November last year.
According to DFAT, the UAE is Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East and in 2024 their two-way trade with UAE was worth $12.3 billion and two-way investment stock worth $23.7 billion.
Federal trade minister Don Farrell was in a bullish mood following the announcement.
“The removal of tariffs on key Australian exports to the UAE, from red meat and dairy to alumina, steel, and cosmetics, opens more opportunities for Australian businesses and creates more high-paying local jobs for Australian workers,” Senator Farrell said.
Partner with Rigby Cooke Lawyers, Andrew Hudson, said the FTA would be Australia’s first in the Middle– East providing “another set of trade benefits for Australian exporters and importers”.
A webinar on the agreement is to be conducted by Mr Hudson in conjunction with the International Forwarders & Customs Brokers Association of Australia (IFCBAA).
According to DFAT, the UAE is the Middle East's third largest economy and one of the wealthiest countries in the region on a per capita basis.
Its GDP in 2024 was estimated at US$568 billion.
The UAE also has six per cent of the world's oil reserves and the seventh largest proven natural gas reserves.
While oil and gas accounts for more than two thirds of its exports and the bulk of government revenue, DFAT notes “significant steps” towards economic diversification.
According to DFAT, “the UAE has ambitions to become a world-leader in artificial intelligence”.
The UAE released a national strategy for AI back in 2017, appointing Omar Sultan Al Olama as the world's first Minister for AI.