RIYADH: India and the UAE have mutually agreed on Monday to double the target of non-oil trade to $100 billion from $48 billion by 2030, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. The goal to achieve this target was set in the first meeting of the Joint Committee of India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in New Delhi. Signed in 2022, the India-UAE CEPA is expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over $100 billion and services to over $15 billion within five years. The minister said both countries are also exploring ways to increase trade further. “We would like to have the UAE as our principal supplier of petroleum products. India has asked the UAE to increase the sourcing of refined petroleum products from India. Third countries’ low-quality petroleum products could be refined by Indian refineries,” said Goyal. He added: “Significant decision has been taken to iron out issues that the businesses had faced … We have a mutually agreed (for a) target of $100 billion bilateral trade by 2030.” In the meeting, it was also decided to set up a new subcommittee to handle issues related to services trade and share services trade data. An India-UAE CEPA council will also be set up to further facilitate the agreement’s implementation. Goyal said the central banks of both countries also discussed the rupee-dirham trade mechanism after a meeting with Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the UAE minister of state for foreign trade. The agreement is set to provide India preferential market access to the UAE on over 97 percent of its tariff lines which account for 99 percent of Indian exports to the Gulf country in value terms. This deal includes labor-intensive sectors such as gems and jewelry, textiles, leather, agricultural and wood products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals and automobiles.