The Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) revealed huge changes in Arab foreign trade during the first years of the 3rd millennium on the level of trade volume and geographic destinations. Slight changes occurred in commodities' distribution of imports and exports structure.
In its report on Arab trade, the reality and the changes, Dhaman said that the annual average of Arab commodities trade leaped from USD497 billion during the first five years of the 3rd millennium to USD1953 billion during the last five years. Dhaman added that this leap led to a hike in the region’s share of global commodities trade from 3 percent to 5 percent, during the two periods.
The report attributed this to the rise in prices of exporting Arab products, namely fuel, in face of the rise of Arab commodities imports.
According to the report, inter-Arab commodities trade doubled in terms of value, more than 4.5 folds from USD27.4 billion to an average of USD126.5 billion during the same period.
However its share from the Arab countries foreign commodities trade rose only slightly from 11 percent to 13 percent, given that the GCC countries contribution in the inter-Arab commodities trade increased from 59 percent to 65 percent during the same period.
Further, the geographic distribution witnessed obvious changes in which the developing countries replaced the developed countries as the primary trade partner of Arab countries.
Its share of total trade rose from around 44 percent to around 60 percent. The report highlighted the importance that Arab countries continue to intensify efforts for the sake of enhancing competitiveness of domestic industries and supporting their share of global commodities exports, with achieving a minimum level of diversity in the structure of exported goods.
