The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) signed between the UAE and India will help encourage trade by reducing custom tariffs by 90 percent and increasing non-oil trade from $45 billion at end of 2021 to $100 billion annually in the next five years.
The two countries would benefit from intensifying bilateral trade and adding 1.7 percent, or $9 billion, to the UAE’s GDP by 2030. In addition, it will increase UAE’s exports by 1.5 percent and its imports by 3.8 percent by 2030.
Cepa will also create some 140,000 jobs for talented people and those with specialist skills in the most promising sectors of the country’s economy by 2030.
Moreover, Cepa will offer numerous advantages to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the private sectors of both countries. It represents a historically strategic step to promote economic integration and cooperation between the two countries and establish a solid foundation that will open new horizons between their business communities.
The deal will also open access to different markets and create new investments and opportunities in critical areas, including energy, environment, and digital trade.
The agreement covers 11 service sectors and more than 100 sub-sectors, including business services, professional services, accounting, real estate, advertising, communications, building and construction, related services, educational services, environmental services, financial services, insurance, social and health services, and travel and tourism services.
Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, said the implementation of the agreement signed between India and the UAE on February 18, 2022, came into force on May 1 with the arrival of the first tariff-free imports.
Al Marri stressed that India is the UAE’s largest trading partner in terms of non-oil exports, equivalent to 14 percent of the country’s total global exports, while the UAE is also India’s third-largest trading partner and accounts for 40 percent of its trade with Arab countries.
