Abu Dhabi: United Arab Emirate's (UAE) Ministry of Economy has temporarily suspended the export and re-export of wheat and wheat flour originating from India, including free zones, for a period of four months, state media agency WAM reported.

The Ministry has issued Cabinet resolution no 72 of 2022 which applies to all wheat varieties namely hard, ordinary and soft wheat, and wheat flour with a strict moratorium on export and re-export of Wheat.

The decision comes in view of the international developments that have affected trade flows.

The UAE and India signed a broad trade and investment pact in February that seeks to cut all tariffs on each other's goods and aims to increase their annual trade to USD 100 billion within five years.

The pact, known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Trade Agreement (CEPA), took effect on May 1.

Meanwhile, India-UAE bilateral trade, valued at USD 180 million (Rs 1373 crore) per annum in the 1970s has increased to USD 60 billion (Rs 4.57 lakh crore) making the UAE, India's third-largest trading partner for the year 2019-20 after China and the US.

Moreover, the UAE is the second-largest export destination of India (after US) with an export value of USD 29 billion (Rs 2.21 lakh crore) for the year 2019-2020.

The UAE is the eighth largest investor in India with an estimated investment of USD 18 billion (Rs 1.37 lakh crore). Indian investments in the UAE are estimated at around USD 85 billion (Rs 6.48 lakh crore).

In February this year, India and the UAE signed a bilateral "Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement". This agreement has the potential to increase trade between India and the UAE from USD 60 billion (Rs 4.57 lakh crore) to USD 100 billion (Rs 7.63 lakh crore) in the next five years, the ministry said.