New Delhi/Dubai: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will be operationalised on May 1, 2022. The bilateral trade pact between India and the UAE covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India (11,908 tariff lines) and the UAE (7,581 tariff lines) respectively. India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 per cent of its tariff lines which account for 99 per cent of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms, especially for all labour-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 per cent 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’ and ‘distribution services.’ Both sides have also agreed to a separate Annex on pharmaceuticals to facilitate access of Indian pharmaceuticals products, especially automatic registration and marketing authorisation in 90 days for products meeting specified criteria. The India-UAE CEPA is expected to boost bilateral trade to $100 billion over the next 5 years and create jobs in both the countries. Addressing a Business-to-Business (B2B) Meet on India-UAE CEPA in Dubai on Monday, Commerce Minister Goyal said that the historic deal sets the tone for new beginnings, extraordinary outcomes and a paradigm shift in trade ties. “This significantly opens the doors to significant markets all over the world. So when we set out to engage with each other, we were not engaging with a 10 million population in the UAE, I had in mind, and both of us had in our vision, the much larger engagement that this CEPA is going to offer to businesses on both sides,” Goyal said. UNI NK
