India-UAE CEPA: Key provisions for Indian F&B sector

The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed on 18 February 2022 and took effect on 1 May 2022. TPCI has released a report on India-UAE CEPA to highlight the Agreement’s broad provisions to the industry to help them make the most of the concessions and increase trade volumes.

The UAE is India’s third-largest export destination, and bilateral goods trade reached US$ 43 billion in 2020-21. The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed on 18 February 2022 and took effect on 1 May 2022. The agreement aims to give India preferential market access to over 97% of the UAE’s tariff lines, which account for 99% of India’s exports to the UAE in value. These include gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural and wood products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cars. As for trade in services, Indian providers will have access to 111 sub-sectors from 11 broad service sectors.

The CEPA is comprehensive in nature and covers trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, dispute settlement and digital trade, among other areas. Overall, the CEPA is expected to increase the total value of bilateral trade in goods to over US$100 billion and trade in services to over US$ 15 billion within five years.

TPCI’s India-UAE CEPA report aims to highlight the Agreement’s broad provisions to the industry to help them make the most of the concessions and increase trade volumes. This is in anticipation of preferential market access to the UAE market under CEPA. The report includes CEPA’s key features and food and beverage PSRs. The report also presents the Tariff schedule (ANNEX 2A- Schedule of Specific Tariff Commitments of India on Trade in Goods, Chapter-2) w.r.t. the HS Codes relating to Food and Beverages sector.

To download the report, click https://www.tpci.in/resources/publications/