Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has described the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as tremendously advantageous to the MSMEs, entrepreneurs, farmers, traders, and other sectors of the economy.
At a press conference in Mumbai, the Minister stated that the CEPA is a balanced, fair, comprehensive, and equitable partnership agreement that will provide India with increased market access in goods as well as in services. It will provide jobs for our youths, offer new markets for our entrepreneurs, strengthen our economy, and make our firms and businesses more competitive, he said.
Goyal said that the sector-wise consultations have shown that the agreement will create a minimum of 10 lakh jobs for Indian citizens.
According to the Union Minister, the CEPA is a historic partnership between two countries whose political leaders and businesses have historically strong ties. The Union minister said that the finalization of the 880-page agreement in a record time of 88 days is a significant achievement for both countries; it will enhance the economies of both the countries and will bring in a new dawn for the people of both countries.
The partnership agreement, according to the Commerce Minister, will open doors, especially for the labour-intensive Indian products such as textiles, gems and jewellery, medicines, agricultural products, footwear, leather, sports goods, engineering goods, auto components, and plastics that are shipped to the UAE.
He informed the media that under the agreement, India has been offered immediate access to UAE markets at no duty from the very beginning day of the Agreement coming into force to items representing 90 per cent of India’s products to the UAE in the terms of value. As soon as the agreement comes into effect, around 90 per cent of the items sent to the UAE from India will be exempt from paying duty charges. 80 per cent of the lines of business will draw in zero duty charge, and the remaining 20 per cent doesn’t have much effect on our exports. So this is a mutually advantageous arrangement.
The CEPA won’t just further elevate the competitiveness of Indian products, but in addition to that will also give competitive and strategic advantages to the country. Since UAE functions as a trading center, the Agreement will assist us with entry points into multiple other markets such as Africa, the Middle East and Europe, the minister added.
The Minister said that with the culmination of the CEPA, India and UAE plan to surge the bilateral trade of goods to USD 100 billion in the next five years. The minister said that he personally believes that the prospects for trade and business between the two nations is much bigger and that the country will exceed the target that has been set.
Shedding light on the benefits that the various sectors will get, the Union Minister said that with the agreement the CEPA will bring the two nations even closer, it will bring up many new opportunities for the Indians to work in the UAE, which will include in fintech, edtech, green tech, automation and Artificial Intelligence. In the current agreement, technology, digital trade and sustainability form the center of focus.
The Minister went on to say that the CEPA will provide for a perpetual bilateral preventive process to deal with the sudden hike in imports of any product. Strict ‘rules of origin’ have been included in the agreement, thus reflecting the requirements for substantial processing of up to 40 per cent value addition. A Memorandum of Understanding among Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), DP World and Al Dahra on the UAE side regarding the “Food Security Corridor Initiative” has been prepared, under which India will be able to play an important role in food the security of the UAE.
It may be noted that the landmark India-UAE Comprehensive Partnership Agreement deal was signed during the virtual summit meeting between Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, H.E. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.