About 

• India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’ Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) entered into force in 2022.

• • The bilateral trade pact is India’s first in the region and the first comprehensive trade agreement with any country in a decade.

• This landmark agreement has set out the bilateral trade target of US$100 billion, to be achieved in the next five years.

Features of CEPA

• CEPA covers goods, services and digital trade, among others, that allows 90% of India’s exports a duty-free access to the Emirates.
• Besides trade in goods, under CEPA, the services sector comprising computer-related services, health, tourism, travel, engineering, and accountancy also get preferential market access to the UAE economy.
• The agreement also provides for
  • An open and non-discriminatory environment for cross-border trade between the two countries; 
  • The removal of unnecessary technical barriers (TBT) for UAE and Indian exporters.
• India has excluded certain goods (such as Dairy, fruits, vegetables, cereals, tea, coffee, sugar, etc.) from the agreement through a “sensitive list” of products amounting to 10 per cent of tariff lines that are excluded completely from the agreement.
• The agreement contains strict rules of origin provisions to prevent other countries from using the agreement to reroute their exports through UAE to benefit from lower tariffs.
• The agreement also has safeguard mechanisms that would be triggered if there was a significant surge in imports of a specific product in either country.