The UAE has started talks for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with Ecuador as the Arab world’s second-largest economy continues to focus on strengthening trade ties with different countries across the globe.
The UAE has so far signed 11 Cepas with countries including India, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Cambodia, Georgia, as well as with Mauritius, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Colombia and Costa Rica.
It is currently holding talks to conclude new deals with Serbia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Ukraine and New Zealand, while negotiations with South Korea have been completed.
“The commencement of negotiations with Ecuador aligns with the UAE's continuing efforts to cement its status as a global trade, investment, and logistical hub,” Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, told the state-run Wam news agency.
“These efforts aim to expand trade relations with ….. Ecuador, a key trading and investment ally, with shared objectives of driving sustainable economic growth in both nations.”
In 2023, non-oil bilateral trade between the UAE and Ecuador reached $675 million, marking a 76 per cent annual increase and more than tripling the figures recorded in 2021.
DP World is also investing in Ecuador's Port of Posorja, with investments valued at $1.2 billion.
“The initiation of Cepa negotiations with the UAE represents a pivotal step in expanding economic ties, with active participation from both countries' business communities, private sectors, and investors,” Sonsoles Garcia, Ecuador’s Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, said.
Agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, technology and renewable energy are some of the sectors where UAE and Ecuador are looking for opportunities to strengthen economic ties, according to Wam.
The UAE has renewable energy investments in several countries through Abu Dhabi's clean energy company Masdar.
The UAE–Ecuador Cepa, if finalised, would be the third such deal with a Latin American nation following agreements with Costa Rica and Colombia last week.
The new announcement comes as the UAE seeks to boost non-oil foreign trade to more than Dh4 trillion ($1 trillion) by 2031 amid new trade agreements with different countries and economic diversification plans.
The UAE's non-oil foreign trade hit a record Dh3.5 trillion in 2023, up from Dh2.23 trillion in 2022 as the country's trade with its top 10 most important foreign partners grew by 26 per cent last year.
Non-oil trade with Turkey, which contributed 5.1 per cent to the UAE's total, grew by 103.7 per cent year on year in 2023, the highest among the top 10 trading partners. This came after the two countries brought their Cepa into effect in September.
Trade with India, which signed a Cepa with the UAE in May 2022, grew by 3.9 per cent, accounting for more than 7.6 per cent of the total trade, the Emirates announced in February.
The UAE is expected to exceed its initial target of signing 26 Cepas because of its pace of work and interest from other countries, Dr Al Zeyoudi, told The National in March.
It also aims to conclude more trade deals with African countries, according to Juma Al Kait, assistant undersecretary for international trade affairs at the Ministry of Economy.
Opening weekend Premier League fixtures
Weekend of August 10-13
Arsenal v Manchester City
Bournemouth v Cardiff City
Fulham v Crystal Palace
Huddersfield Town v Chelsea
Liverpool v West Ham United
Manchester United v Leicester City
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur
Southampton v Burnley
Watford v Brighton & Hove Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Everton
SPECS
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
