• India and UAE signed a Joint Vision Statement on ‘Advancing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) during a virtual summit.

About the Trade Agreement

• The agreement is expected to provide significant benefits to Indian and UAE businesses, enhance market access and reduce tariffs.
• The shared objective of the agreement is to promote new trade, investment and innovation in diverse sectors, including economy, energy, climate action, emerging technologies, skills and education, food security, healthcare, defense and security.
• The CEPA is expected to increase the bilateral trade between the two countries from the present level of USD 60 Bn to USD 100 Bn in the next five years.
• The agreements are important from the point of view of employment as it is estimated that about 10 Lakh jobs shall be generated across multiple labour-intensive sectors.
• It shall help Indian exporters get access to West Asian countries and Africa through UAE. This agreement shall also prove helpful for the Indian pharmaceutical companies in getting regulatory approval, registration and market authorization for their medicines in countries like UK and USA.
• This trade deal comes with strict rules of origin conditions. To avoid the dumping of products of a third country in India, 40% of the value addition on the products exported to India shall be done in UAE.

Source: EPIC February 2022