Latin gateway: Dubai to launch trade office in Panama

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Dubai announced an agreement to open a trade office in Panama on Tuesday, as part of the UAE’s plan to strengthen economic and trade ties with the Latin American region.

The announcement was made at the two-day Global Business Forum (GBF), hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday and Wednesday. No date was given for when the trade office would open, but officials from Dubai Chamber said that it could take place within weeks.

This is the second office Dubai Chamber will open in Latin America, following the opening of an office in Brazil last year. The Chamber has also previously announced plans to open an office in Argentina.

Non-oil trade between Brazil and Dubai amounted to 6 billion dirhams ($1.6 billion) in 2016, more than a third of Dubai’s total non-oil trade with Latin America, which stood at 17.4 billion dirhams in 2016, according to a press release issued by the Dubai Chamber last year.

“The countries of Latin American are fascinating,” the UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation, Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy, said during her speech at the Dubai Global Business Forum on Tuesday, in which she praised the country’s rich history, culture and landscape.

Meanwhile, the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, described Dubai as his country’s gateway to India and Africa.

“We expect Dubai to use Panama as a gateway to Latin America,” Varela said during his speech at the GBF on Tuesday.

The UAE’s exports to Panama stood at $8.1 million in 2016, down from $9 million a year earlier, according to the most recent statistics posted by Trade Map, a trade statistics site developed by the International Trade Centre. Vehicles, machinery and aircraft and parts topped the list of the UAE’s exports to Panama.

On the other hand, UAE imports- which includes fruits, fish, coffee and tea- from Panama stood at $521,000 in 2016, down from $1.4 million in 2015, according to Trade Map.

Although trading between the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Latin America has risen significantly in recent years, overall trade flow between the Arab Gulf region and Latin America accounted for only 1 percent of the GCC’s total exports and 2 percent of its imports, according to a 2016 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which was commissioned by Dubai Chamber.

Analysts told Zawya last year that the Arab Gulf states are taking steps to expand economic ties with Latin America.