Conquering the United Arab Emirates

Early this year, the Philippines welcomed a top level business delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) headed by UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Bin Saeed Al-Mansouri. During that visit, both parties agreed to increase trade between the two countries from its current level of $1.359 billion.

Of the $1.359-billion two-way trade in 2013, the trade balance heavily weighs in UAE’s favor which enjoys $1.04 billion worth of exports to the Philippines as against imports of only $315 million. The Philippines imports from the UAE products like petroleum oils, LNG, butane and propane while the UAE imports from us Philippine bananas, electronics and condiments, among other things.