Colombia's Senate committee approves the UAE trade agreement in first debate

Colombia's Senate Second Committee approved the bill implementing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the United Arab Emirates in first debate on 5 November 2026, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism said the same day. The agreement, signed in Abu Dhabi in April 2024, would remove duties on 85 per cent of Colombian exports to the UAE from the day it takes effect. For Colombian investors the vote matters less for the tariffs than for what it signals: a treaty relationship between Bogotá and the Gulf is being built, and Colombian capital already moving into Dubai and Abu Dhabi property will do so inside a firmer framework.

What was approved on 5 November

The Ministry described the agreement as the Acuerdo Integral de Asociación Económica, the Spanish name for a CEPA, and said the Second Committee of the Senate gave it first debate approval on 5 November 2026. Vice Minister of Foreign Trade Sandra Carvajal Sáenz spoke for the government and called it, in translation, "the first agreement that Colombia signs with Arab countries," per La República on 7 November 2026. Senate President Honorio Henríquez is the bill's sponsor, per ColombiaOne on 8 November 2026.

The approval is one step of several. La República reported that the bill must complete the remaining congressional debates, including a plenary vote, and then pass review by the Constitutional Court before the agreement enters into force. No date has been given for any of those steps.

What the agreement covers

The Ministry set out the tariff schedule. On entry into force, 85 per cent of Colombian products enter the UAE duty free immediately and 13 per cent follow a five year reduction schedule. In the other direction, 63 per cent of UAE products enter Colombia duty free at once and 37 per cent follow schedules of up to 12 years, with Colombia's price band mechanism kept mainly for oils and sugar.

The agreement has 19 chapters, per the Ministry, covering market access for goods, sanitary measures, rules of origin, trade defence, small and medium enterprises, technical barriers, services, digital trade, environment and responsible tourism. The Ministry's summary does not name a standalone investment chapter, and this article does not assume one exists.

The trade figures depend on what is counted. The Ministry put total trade in 2025 at USD 929 million with a Colombian surplus of USD 799 million, and Colombian non mining and energy exports to the UAE from January to August 2026 at USD 35.1 million. When the agreement was signed in April 2024, WAM reported non oil bilateral trade of USD 53.1 million in 2023, up 43 per cent. The two measures are not comparable: the Ministry's total includes mining and energy exports, and WAM's figure excluded oil. The Ministry also cited UAE agri food imports of about USD 19 billion a year from all sources.

The signing in Abu Dhabi was witnessed by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Colombia's then president, Gustavo Petro, and signed by Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Germán Umaña, then Colombia's trade minister, per Aletihad, citing WAM, on 19 April 2024.

Where Colombian capital fits in the UAE

The UAE property market is already drawing buyers from across the world. The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre reported on 7 November 2026 that non resident individuals invested AED 17.22 billion in Abu Dhabi property in the first nine months of 2026, from 121 nationalities, led by the UK, China, Russia, the United States, France and Germany. The release did not break out Latin American countries, and this article has found no published Dubai figure for Colombian buyers, so it makes no claim about Colombian purchase volumes.

What can be said is structural. A Colombian citizen can buy freehold property in Dubai's designated areas under Dubai Law No. 7 of 2006, as our Spanish guide sets out with the law as its source, and can hold it personally, through a company or through a foundation, as our guide to how to hold UAE property explains. A qualifying property purchase can support a Golden Visa application; the thresholds and the official guides are set out on our Golden Visa page.

What it means for investors

For a Colombian buyer the practical facts are unchanged by the vote, and worth restating. The dirham is pegged at AED 3.6725 to the US dollar, so a Colombian who holds dollars carries no currency risk against the dollar on a Dubai purchase; the peso to dollar rate is the variable, since Colombia has run a flexible exchange rate since 1999, per Banco de la República. A Colombian tax resident must declare foreign assets to the DIAN on Form 160 when they exceed 2,000 UVT at 1 January, COP 104,748,000 in 2026, and Colombian investment abroad is channelled through the foreign exchange market under Banco de la República rules. Both rules are set out with their official sources in our Spanish guide to investing in Dubai from Colombia. Confirm the position with a Colombian adviser before buying.

On financing, the Central Bank of the UAE's Regulations Regarding Mortgage Loans cap any off plan mortgage at 50 per cent of value and an expatriate's second or investment home at 60 per cent, with a maximum tenor of 25 years, and the regulation does not mention non residents, so each bank sets its own policy for buyers living abroad. Our non resident mortgages page lists the documents UAE banks ask of a foreign borrower.

For a Colombian company or family office, the agreement's services and digital trade chapters are the ones to read once the text is published in Colombia's official gazette, because they set out how a Colombian business may operate in the UAE and the reverse. A UAE base in DIFC or ADGM remains available with or without the CEPA; our guide to setting up a UAE family office covers the options.

What to watch

The next congressional debate is the first marker, and the Senate plenary vote the second. The Constitutional Court review comes after Congress and has no fixed timetable. Entry into force comes only after both governments complete their internal procedures, and the Ministry has not said whether the UAE has completed its side.

For property buyers the agreement changes nothing on the day it passes. It is a signal of direction, and the figures to follow are the ones the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre and the Dubai Land Department publish on foreign buyers by nationality, if Latin American countries begin to appear in them.