India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement completes 3 years of signing

CEPA is a full and deep Agreement which was signed on February 18, 2022, during a virtual summit between the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

It entered into force from 01st May 2022.

Since the signing of CEPA, bilateral merchandise trade has nearly doubled from USD 43.3 billion in FY 2020-21 to USD 83.7 billion in 2023-24. During the current FY (April-December, 2024), it reached USD 71.8 billion.

CEPA has been successful in realising its potential of diversification of trade basket as non-oil trade touched USD 57.8 billion in FY 2023-24 accounting for more than half of the total trade.

This is attuned to the target of taking bilateral non-oil trade to USD 100 billion level by 2030, as per the ministry's release.

In terms of utilization of CEPA preferential duties are concerned, since coming into force, nearly 2,40,000 Certificates of Origin have been issued against which total export of USD 19.87 billion have been made to the UAE, the ministry said.

In terms of India's exports, non-oil exports reached USD 27.4 billion in FY 2023-24 recording an average growth of 25.6 per cent since entering into force of CEPA. At the sectoral level, besides refined crude oil products and gems and jewellery products, electrical machinery and equipment, light & medium high technology goods like boilers, generators and reactors and organic & in-organic chemicals have been major achievers.

Besides, at the product level, smartphones have emerged as a major item of export with shipments valued USD 2.57 billion bound for the UAE during FY 2023-24, as per the ministry.

Since signing of the Agreement, both the governments have strived to address challenges faced by each others' exporters through regular high-level meetings and technical discussions between the officials, the ministry said.

The Joint Committee, established as an institutional mechanism to take stock of the implementation of CEPA, has already met twice at the level of Joint/Additional Secretary -the last one being in October, 2024, the ministry added.

The Trade in Goods Committee has also met several times to address issues related to bilateral trade, according to the ministry.

In the spirit of mutual cooperation and trust, both sides have taken concrete steps to operationalize various other Sub-Committees as well to deliberate on issues related to trade in services, rules of origin, customs procedure and trade facilitation.

The inauguration of Bharat Mart initiative by the Prime Minister in Dubai will act as a One Stop Shop for Indian manufacturers to offer their products to the global markets and will foster our exports.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry said that the India-UAE CEPA has resulted into new era of economic partnership and diplomacy for both the nations by empowering MSMEs, generating employment and creating new business opportunities. (ANI)