CANBERRA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Australia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have officially upgraded their trade relationship to a comprehensive partnership.

The trade ministers of the two countries met in Canberra on Tuesday where they officially signed the Australia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as well as an investment agreement and five investment memoranda of understanding.

Under the CEPA, tariffs on over 99 percent of Australian exports to the UAE will be eliminated.

Don Farrell, Australia's Minister for Trade and Tourism, said that independent modeling estimates a potential annual increase in the value of Australian exports to the UAE of around 678 million Australian dollars (442.7 million U.S. dollars) under the deal.

"Our deal delivers for Australian farmers, producers, manufacturers, services providers, exporters and Australian workers, giving them unprecedented access and preferential treatment when they do business with the UAE," he said in a statement.

Two-way trade between Australia and the UAE was worth 9.9 billion Australian dollars (6.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023 and two-way investment was worth 20.7 billion Australian dollars (13.5 billion U.S. dollars), making it Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East.

Farrell said that the CEPA will also strengthen cooperation between the two countries on shared environmental challenges, including the net-zero transition, addressing climate change, reducing pollution, improving air quality and preventing overfishing and the illegal wildlife trade. Enditem

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