The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which has been in effect for a year, will be discussed at a two-day meeting between senior government representatives from India and the UAE starting on June 11.
A person with knowledge of the situation stated that a delegation from the UAE will soon be in Delhi to meet with important department of commerce officials.
“Officials of Customs departments from both sides are also expected to meet and work out a mechanism towards data sharing, which will aid in deciphering the utilisation of the trade deal,” the person stated above told Business Standard.
Additionally, committees will be established for each trade agreement chapter or policy area, such as services and investments. Additionally, a business delegation will be there to talk about investment. the possibilities in India.
A CEPA between India and the UAE went into effect on May 1, 2022. As part of the agreement, both nations have swapped tariff reductions on goods that benefit their respective export markets. India received tariff breaks from the UAE on more than 97% of its tariff lines, or 99% of trade in value terms. On the other hand, India has granted the UAE privileged access to more than 90% of its tariff lines, including those that the UAE is interested in exporting.
With trade volumes of $31.61 billion and $84.84 billion, respectively, the UAE is India’s second-largest export market after the US and its third-largest trading partner after China.
India hopes to export items to West Asia worth $50 billion. country by FY27.
While the total trade between the two countries increased by 16% annually to $84.84 billion in FY23, this growth was primarily the result of larger imports, which were fueled by foreign oil shipments that arrived at domestic ports from the UAE.
The trade gap was $21.62 billion. However, government officials emphasised that the gap was anticipated to decrease due to a global decline in petroleum costs.
The bilateral commerce climbed to $76.9 billion, up 14% YoY, over the CEPA implementation period. India’s exports to the UAE increased by 8.5% over the same period last year to $28.5 billion, while exports to the rest of the world excluding the UAE increased by 3.1%. Higher exports were the primary cause of the increase. demand for sectors, such as gems and jewellery, machinery and automobiles. Export of products, such as iron and steel and textiles, contracted due to imposition of export restrictions and tepid demand, respectively.
According to the commerce department’s analysis shared last month, during May-March (2022-23), the India-UAE CEPA has surpassed almost all other free trade agreements in terms of utilisation. The number of certificates of origin has been the highest in the case of India-ASEAN FTA at 149,000. This was followed by the trade deal with the UAE as 54,142 certificates of origin were issued to exporters to avail concessional duty advantage under the trade pact.
