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India, UAE ties in a CEPA to strengthen trade relations

BNE ADMIN


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New Delhi: Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, and Textiles, Government of India, today announced the unveiling of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at a press conference held on 28 March 2022 during his visit to the United Arab Emirates. Shri Goyal is in UAE to participate in the ‘Investopia Summit’ and ‘World Government Summit being held in Dubai on 28th March 2022 and 29th March 2022 respectively. With this launch, the text of the India-UAE CEPA is now available in the public domain.

India-UAE CEPA was signed on 18 February 2022 in New Delhi during the India-UAE Virtual Summit held between His Excellency Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Chairman of the Executive Council.

Salient features of India-UAE CEPA

The India-UAE CEPA is the first deep and full free trade agreement to be signed by India with any country in the past decade. The Agreement is a comprehensive agreement, which will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Customs Procedures, Pharmaceutical products, Government Procurement, IPR, Investment, Digital Trade and Cooperation in other Areas.

Impact or benefits

CEPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries. The CEPA between India and the UAE covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India (11,908 tariff lines) and the UAE (7581 tariff lines) respectively. India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 % of its tariff lines which account for 99% of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms, especially for all labor-intensive sectors such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural and wood products, engineering products, medical devices, and Automobiles. India will also be offering preferential access to the UAE on over 90% of its tariff lines, including lines of export interest to the UAE.

 As regards trade in services, India has offered market access to the UAE in around 100 sub-sectors, while Indian service providers will have access to around 111 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors such as ‘business services’, ‘communication services’, ‘construction and related engineering services, ‘distribution services’, ‘educational services’, ‘environmental services’, ‘financial services, ‘health-related and social services, ‘tourism and travel-related services, ‘recreational cultural and sporting services’ and ‘transport services’.

 The negotiations for India-UAE CEPA were concluded in a record span of 88 days. The Agreement is expected to enter into force on 01 May 2022.

BNE ADMIN