India-Mauritius FTA discussions by Cabinet soon

The Cabinet is all set to hold discussions on the proposed free trade agreement between India and Mauritius. The deal, officially titled Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement, has been under negotiation since 2005 and is aimed at liberalising norms to boost two-way commerce and investments. While experts are of the opinion that the country may not gain much from this pact in terms of goods since Mauritius is a small market, services like IT & tourism have a tremendous untapped potential.

The bilateral trade between the two countries increased marginally from US$ 1.1 billion in 2017-18 to US$ 1.2 billion in 2018-19. Mauritius was the second largest source of foreign direct investment in India (US$ 8 billion) last year.