The United Arab Emirates and India are set to sign a major trade deal -- the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on February 18, the negotiations for which were completed in a record time of less than half a year.
The UAE is India’s third trading partner globally, after the United States and China. Bilateral trade between India and the UAE was worth $43.3 billion as of 2020-21, and is spread across thousands of traded items. In 2019-20, the pre-pandemic year, trade between the two countries was estimated at $59 billion.
India is currently engaged in regional and bilateral trade negotiations with several countries to help diversify and expand the export markets.
"India is negotiating trade agreements with countries like the UAE, the EU, and Canada," Goyal had said in Parliament earlier this month.
"We have launched FTA negotiations with the UAE, Australia, the United Kingdom, the EU, Canada. We are also in dialogue with GCC countries — the bloc of six countries in the Middle East– who have shown keen interest in FTA with India and we hope to launch the negotiation in the near future,” he had said.
At present, India has trade agreements (preferential market access and economic cooperation) with around 50 nations, while free trade agreement (FTA) talks are underway with Australia and the United Kingdom.
India officially began negotiations for a trade deal with the UK on January 13, with both sides aiming for an 'early harvest deal' before the year ends, to be followed up with a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by early-2023.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and British Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan reiterated this on January 13 when both governments exchanged the terms of reference of the FTA, and officially began the negotiations.
In 2020-21, India’s exports to the UK stood at $8.15 billion and imports from the UK stood at $4.95 billion. While exports primarily comprise textiles, ready-made garments, gems and jewellery, petroleum products, spices, etc., imports include metal scraps and precious and semi-precious stones.
As for India’s FTA with Australia, the country has decided to keep sensitive dairy and agriculture products out of the deal, which will officially be called the India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). This means concessions will not be offered on items that are essential for the livelihood of farmers, such as milk, butter, and wheat.
India has reached a "near conclusion" of the early harvest part of the proposed trade deal with Australia, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had said on February 11. Both countries are expected to finalise the deal by next month.
Notably, Australia was India’s 15th largest trading partner as of 2020-21, with trade worth $12.29 billion, and a trade deficit of $4.2 billion.
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