UAE — Dubai
Dubai as the re-export hub into the Gulf, Africa and South Asia
The UAE is above all a transhipment point: goods arrive, are stored and move on into the Gulf, East Africa and South Asia. There are two parallel worlds — the mainland, where a company trades directly on the domestic market, and more than forty free zones with their own administrations, where registration is fast and profits repatriate freely but selling onto the mainland goes through a distributor or a branch. A 9 % corporate income tax has applied since 2023.
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Setting up a company
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Legal forms
- ·Foreign ownership
- ·How long registration takes
- ·Documents to incorporate
- ·Notary and legalisation
- ·What to watch for
Taxes
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Corporate income tax
- ·VAT
- ·VAT registration
- ·Tax reliefs
- ·Double taxation treaty
Visas and residence
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Short stay
- ·Work permit
- ·Residence by investment
- ·Remote work / digital nomad
Citizenship
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Route to citizenship
Investment opportunities
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Zones and incentives
- ·What grew last
- ·Rules for a foreign investor
What it makes and needs
Oil and oil products, aluminium, precious metals and jewellery, and a very large volume of re-exports.
Machinery and electronics, vehicles, food, jewellery and consumer goods — much of it destined for onward export.
Food and drink, building materials and technology, healthcare, luxury and branded goods, logistics and warehousing solutions.
Money and payments
The dirham is pegged to the US dollar, so USD exchange risk is nil and euro risk equals EUR/USD risk. There are no exchange controls.
Opening the corporate account is the slowest part of the whole set-up — KYC is strict and banks usually want a personal visit and evidence of actual trade.
Importing into their market
The UAE is in the GCC customs union with a common external tariff; the free zones lie outside the customs territory, so goods in them bear no duty until they enter the mainland.
The ECAS system and the Emirates Quality Mark scheme for defined products; food and cosmetics are registered, and meat and poultry require a halal certificate from a recognised body.
Toys and low-voltage electrical appliances may be sold in the Gulf only with the G mark (Gulf Conformity Mark) under GSO technical regulations. Since 1 April 2017 it is shown as the GCTS tracking symbol: the G mark with a QR code. It is mandatory in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Yemen, and is issued by a GSO notified body.
Prepackaged food is labelled under GSO 9/2013: the information must be in Arabic, and another language may appear only alongside it with identical content. Halal food follows GSO 2055-1:2015 across the whole chain from receipt to storage; GSO published a draft of its new version on 17 February 2026.
Bringing their goods into the EU
The UAE has no free-trade agreement with the EU — imports into the Union bear the full common tariff. The EU and the UAE formally launched negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement on 28 May 2025 (first round 24 June 2025); the EU's negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council as a whole were suspended in 2008.
Re-export through the UAE does not change origin: transhipment and warehousing have no effect on it, so the goods keep the origin of the country of manufacture along with every measure attached to it.
Outlook
Base case: the UAE stays a re-export hub between Europe, Asia and Africa, and the centre of gravity keeps moving from oil to services. For a European exporter that means a stable but crowded market, decided by logistics and price rather than by exclusivity.
What to watch: how corporate tax is interpreted inside the free zones, transhipment volumes at Jebel Ali, the dirham (pegged to the dollar, so against the euro it moves with the dollar) and whether compliance on the re-export of dual-use goods tightens further.
Practical matters
Arabic is the official language and the language of the courts; English is the language of business and most contracts are bilingual.
The working week runs Monday to Friday with a Saturday–Sunday weekend, and Friday is usually shortened for the midday prayer.
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