With Erdogan’s win, UAE looks to strengthen trade relations with Turkey

With Erdogan’s win, UAE looks to strengthen trade relations with Turkey

As Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins the presidential election, defeating opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s runoff vote, the UAE will look forward to strengthening its trade relations with Ankara.

"Erdogan's victory will ensure continuity in planned economic and trade cooperation," said Aathira Prasad, Director, Macroeconomics, at the Dubai-based consultancy Nasser Saidi & Associates.

The two countries signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in March, which aims to increase bilateral trade to $40 billion over the next five years, from about $19 billion currently. The UAE is also seeking to eliminate or reduce customs duties on more than 93% of the value of non-oil trade as it looks to gain access to more markets.

"As the UAE seeks to diversify, Turkey would be an important market to tap," Ajit Karnik, Professor of Economics at Middlesex University in Dubai, told Zawya.

"Turkey is possibly the biggest economy in the region. In 2021, its GDP was $1.131 trillion, which was much larger than that of Saudi Arabia ($672 billion). So, the removal of trade barriers will open a huge market for the UAE," said Karnik.

As testimony to the warming relations between Turkey and the UAE, the GCC country set up a $10-billion investment fund in