- The UAE has one of the most open economies in the world. Its robust economic partnership with the United States reflects the UAE’s role as a regional leader in terms of economic reform, openness to international trade and investment, and political stability.
- In 2012, the UAE and US partnered to form an Economic Policy Dialogue (EPD), which continues to serve as a platform to strengthen the economic, trade, and commercial relationships between the two countries. Partners in a Globalized World The volume of US exports and foreign direct investment into the UAE in recent years has grown dramatically and is likely to continue to grow in the future.
- This growth reflects the increasingly diversified UAE economy (70% of the UAE’s GDP now comes from non-oil activities), as well as the country's leading role as a modernizing influence in the Arab world.
- The UAE is the United States’ single largest export market in the Middle East, with more than $19.5 billion in exports in 2018 - the tenth straight year the UAE has held this distinction. The UAE has trade relations with every state in the United States, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The UAE pegs its currency, the dirham, to the dollar. More than 1,500 US firms have a presence in UAE, from Bechtel and ExxonMobil to Starbucks and Cold Stone Creamery. The UAE's national airlines – Emirates and Etihad – fly more than 200 nonstop flights each week between the UAE and American cities.
- These routes provide enhanced access for US businesses to new and expanding markets throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. High Value Trade and Investment Through significant investments in the United States for over 30 years, the UAE has been a dependable and long-term contributor to the US economy, providing liquidity to US capital markets while supporting growth for US companies, and job security for US workers.
- The commercial relationship between the UAE and the United States is characterized by a set of high-value trade and investment activities. In late 2013, the UAE airlines (Emirates, Etihad, and fly Dubai) announced the largest commercial aircraft order in history. UAE airlines combined are buying 300+ new Boeing aircraft valued at more than $120 billion, including General Electric engines and maintenance services.
- California-based AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi engaged in a joint-venture to open Global Foundries, a US-headquartered semiconductor manufacturing company, in 2009. Global Foundries operates a $4.2 billion semiconductor fabrication plant in Upstate New York, where it employs nearly 3,000 people. Westinghouse is participating in a South Korean-led consortium that is building four nuclear reactors for commercial energy generation in the UAE, the first of which is scheduled to go online in 2019.In 2014, UAE-based Gulf tanner signed a 35-year agreement to operate a container and cargo terminal at Port Canaveral on Florida's east coast, representing an investment of up to $100 million in equipment and jobs.
- Boeing and Mubadala Development Company, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, announced a 10-year direct contract for Strata Manufacturing, Mubadala Aerospace’s advanced composite aero structures facility, to produce commercial composite aero structures for the 777 and 787 Dreamliner. In addition, the companies announced a strategic agreement that positions Strata to be a future supplier of the vertical fin for the Dreamliner, a major composite assembly for Boeing’s most advanced airplane program
