Spotlight on 'incorrect' UAE trade statistics

The statistic data issued by the government departments and statistics centres in the UAE regarding trade is inaccurate and not giving correct view of the foreign and inter-emirate trade, according to Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.

The department warned that inaccurate data leads to wrong figures for the each emirate’s gross domestic product (GDP) and also makes tougher to predict trends in the trade sector, Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm said in a report.

The department, however, said that containers should be marked with the name of emirate rather than mentioning the UAE which will help monitor foreign trade as well as inter-emirate movement of cargoes accurately.

It also proposed that each emirate should send data to National Statistics Centre, Federal Customs Authority, Ministry of Foreign Trade and custom departments in Dubai, Sharjah, and Ras Al Khaimah to ensure data accuracy.

Mahmoud Obaid, Researcher of the Abu Dhabi Economic Development Department (DED), said “data received from local statistics centres and government departments on trade volume of each emirate is not accurate at all, since there is a great discrepancy in the process of monitoring and recording data”.

He said this situation is “unacceptable in a developed country like the UAE which aims to become one of the best five governments in the world in few years.”

However, some of the representatives of the statistical agencies raised concern about the initiative, saying it violates the statistic laws of the World Trade Organisation and GCC countries. But Obaid denied that it contradicts any of the regional or international regulations.

Obaid said the goods transported through the port should use it as part of its imports and exports statistics regardless of the final destination of imports in any of the six emirates. In the case of exports, all the goods transported through the border port should be considered as exports of the emirate that owns the port, regardless of the intended final destination of the goods in the UAE.

Mona Al Suwaidi, Head of the Economic Studies at DED, said Abu Dhabi’s total imports during the first nine months reached Dh62.7 billion while exports totalled Dh8.68 billion and re-export hit Dh8 billion.

She said it is high time to launch an initiative to develop a mechanism to monitor and record inter-emirate trade.

Nasim Al Muhairi, Director of the Statistics Department at Dubai Customs, said: “Nearly 75 per cent of the UAE’s exports, imports and re-exports are shipped through Dubai ports alone due to facilities in custom procedures provided by its ports, in addition to sophisticated logistics services.” She pointed out that most of the customs clearance in Dubai is electronic.

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