The India-UAE Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which will be signed shortly, will boost gold jewellery exports from India, generate employment and enhance skill development opportunities in jewellery manufacturing and supply chain, said Shamlal Ahamed, managing director, international operations of Malabar Gold & Diamonds.

Ahamed is a member of the official trade delegation of UAE which is visiting India to have trade talks with the Union ministry of commerce and Indian businesses.

“The proposed FTA will pave the way for making India the OEM manufacturing base for global brands. At present, Singapore is the OEM for many jewellery products in the UAE,” he added.

Following the FTA, the import duty for bullion from UAE to India will reduce by 1% to 9.75% . And secondly, the import duty for Indian made jewellery into UAE will also reduce to nil from 5 per cent now. In fact, exports of plain gold jewellery from India to UAE has come down by 41.5% in the first 10 months of the current fiscal compared to the pre-pandemic year due to the 5% import duty in the Gulf nation.

This will help UAE to establish itself as the ‘Jewellery Gateway’ to the world replacing the likes of Hong Kong, Italy.

“The move will also enhance the already robust jewellery retail and wholesale business and reinforce UAE as the preferred jewellery destination as it already offers the best price, quality, and design offerings,” said Ahamed.

He added “The FTA between the two countries, will promote setting up of more organised wholesale of Indian manufactured jewellery This development will make the pricing of Indian manufactured jewellery even more attractive to shoppers (resident, transit, and tourists) in UAE.”

Ahamed explained that for Malabar the FTA will enable the jeweller to further enhance and promote the organisational vision using UAE as its international hub. At present, the company’s overseas operations are spread in nine countries.