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General Trading vs Naming Your Products: Scope and Cost
The short answer
General trading is a single activity that permits trading in most goods without naming them, and UAE authorities price it as its own licence category rather than as an ordinary activity. At DMCC the general trading licence runs to roughly AED 50,000 a year against roughly AED 20,000 for a one-year standard trading and service licence, with a higher one-off registration charge; in Dubai, Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011 carries a separate Schedule 1 line for issuing a general trading licence at AED 15,000, though whether that substitutes for the ordinary issuance fee is a question for DET. It also has a hole in it: DMCC states that general trading gives access to all activities except oil and gas and regulated activities that require third-party approvals. If your goods sit in one or two related lines, naming them is usually both cheaper and more accurate.
General trading is the activity people ask for by name, usually after being told it lets them sell anything. The second half of that sentence is close enough to true to be dangerous, and the price of the first half is rarely explained. For those considering the designated-zone route to incorporation, understanding the implications of general trading is crucial.
The useful way to decide is to stop treating general trading as an activity you add and start treating it as a licence category you buy — which is how the authorities themselves treat it in their schedules. Understanding what is UAE trade licence is essential in this context.
What the activity actually is
In the registers we have captured, general trading appears once per jurisdiction, under the wholesale trade group, and every authority puts it in a class of its own: Ajman free zone versus mainland comparison files it under a General Trading licence type, RAKEZ under a General Trading licence, IFZA under Trade, DMCC as a special licence. Dubai mainland carries both a general trading activity and a general trading wholesalers activity under the same ISIC family.
DMCC's own register also records a minimum share capital of AED 1,000,000 against its general trading activity — a condition that has nothing to do with fees and everything to do with whether the route is open to you at all. Conditions like that are attached to the activity, not to the company, which is why they surface late for people who chose the activity last.
The premium is a category, not a line item
This is the part that changes the arithmetic. Where an ordinary trading licence is priced one way, general trading is priced another, and the second price is not the first price plus a small activity fee.
DMCC's published schedule of charges, captured on 15 August 2026, prices its general trading licence at roughly AED 50,000 a year, and states explicitly that the standard trading and service licence pricing — roughly AED 20,000 for one year — does not apply to general trading. New company registration is also charged at a higher rate for companies selecting general trading. Figures here are rounded and approximate; the authority publishes the exact schedule and revises it.
Dubai mainland company formation route names the category in legislation rather than in a schedule of charges. Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011, approving the fees and fines of the economic department, carries a Schedule 1 line for issuance of a licence to conduct a general trading activity at AED 15,000, and a contracting equivalent at AED 10,000. Both sit as separate line items alongside the ordinary licence issuance fee, and the Resolution does not say whether they substitute for that fee or stack on it — confirm with DET which applies before you build a total on it. Fee resolutions are amended, so confirm the current schedule too.
What general trading does not buy you
The scope is broad but not universal, and the exclusions are the commercially interesting part. DMCC's condition on the general trading licence is that the company may select general trading to access all activities except oil and gas activities and regulated activities that require third-party approvals.
Read that again in the context of the approval map: across our Dubai mainland capture, 1,797 of 2,277 activities name an external authority. Whole categories of goods — food, pharmaceuticals, telecoms equipment, security equipment, vehicles, tobacco products — carry a named regulator. General trading does not carry you past any of them. If the reason you wanted breadth was to move into a regulated line later without an amendment, general trading does not do the job you bought it for.
- Regulated goods still need the regulator, general trading or not
- Oil and gas is excluded outright in DMCC's condition
- Share-capital conditions can attach to the activity itself
- Some authorities restrict which legal forms may hold it
When three named activities win
Most authorities let a licence carry several activities, and how they charge for the extras is the whole comparison. Sharjah Publishing City's published from-price for a one-year licence with no residence visas for the founding team includes up to five business activities. Meydan charges nothing for additional activities while they stay within three pricing groups, then about AED 1,000 for every activity in each further group. DMCC charges an amendment fee per request and, beyond six activities sharing the same first two digits of the activity code, roughly AED 1,500 per additional activity per year. Those are approximate, rounded figures from captures made in August 2026.
The structural point is that the extras are cheap while your activities are related and get expensive when they scatter. Three activities inside one group is the cheapest thing on this page. Three activities in three unrelated groups is the case where general trading starts to make arithmetic sense — if the goods are unregulated, and if you can meet the category's own conditions.
The honest decision list
- Write down every product line you expect to sell in the next two years, not the one you are launching with
- Check whether they share an activity group in the authority's own register — the codes tell you before the salesperson does
- Check whether any of them carries a named external approval; if so, general trading does not reach it
- Compare the general trading category price against the base licence plus the marginal activity charges, over the term you intend to hold the licence
- Check the conditions attached to the category itself, including share capital and legal form
- If in doubt, name the activities you have and amend later — an amendment is a known, bounded cost
In short
What to take from this
- Authorities price general trading as a separate licence category, not as one more activity added to a standard licence.
- DMCC's schedule puts general trading at roughly AED 50,000 a year against roughly AED 20,000 for a standard trading and service licence.
- Dubai's Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011 carries a AED 15,000 Schedule 1 line for issuing a general trading licence; whether it substitutes for or stacks on the ordinary issuance fee is a question for DET.
- General trading does not reach regulated goods — DMCC excludes activities requiring third-party approvals outright.
- Extra activities are cheap while they share an activity group and expensive when they scatter, which is the real test.
- Is a general trading licence worth its premium?
- It depends on whether your product lines share an activity group. Authorities charge little or nothing for additional activities within the same group and charge per activity once they scatter, so general trading tends to win only for genuinely unrelated, unregulated goods. Compare the category price against the base licence plus marginal activity charges over the term you intend to hold the licence.
- Does general trading cover regulated products?
- No. DMCC states that general trading gives access to all activities except oil and gas activities and regulated activities that require third-party approvals. Food, pharmaceuticals, telecoms equipment, security equipment and vehicles carry named regulators in the activity registers, and general trading does not remove them.
- Is share capital required for a general trading licence?
- It can be a condition of the activity rather than of the company. DMCC's activity register records a minimum share capital of AED 1,000,000 against its general trading activity. Conditions differ by authority, so check the register entry for the specific jurisdiction before choosing the route.
- Does a general trading licence cost more on the mainland too?
- In Dubai the category is named in legislation rather than in package pricing. Executive Council Resolution No. 13 of 2011 carries Schedule 1 lines for issuing a licence to conduct a general trading activity at AED 15,000 and a contracting activity at AED 10,000, listed separately from the ordinary licence issuance fee. The Resolution does not state whether those lines replace the ordinary fee or are added to it, so confirm with DET — and confirm the current schedule, since fee resolutions are amended.
Sources
Where this comes from
- DMCC — schedule of charges
- Dubai Legislation — Executive Council Resolution No. (13) of 2011 approving fees and fines of the Department of Economic Development
- Dubai Legislation — Law No. (13) of 2011 regulating the conduct of economic activities in Dubai
- The Official Portal of the UAE Government — steps to start a business on the mainland
This page is general information about UAE business setup, not legal, tax, immigration, or banking advice. Rules, fees, permitted activities, and bank policies can change. Final eligibility depends on your facts and the applicable rules at the time of application.