March 30, 2022
NEW DELHI – The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will be operationalised on 1 May 2022, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal has announced.
Addressing a Business-to-Business (B2B) Meet on India-UAE CEPA in Dubai on Monday, he said the historic deal sets the tone for new beginnings, extraordinary outcomes and a paradigm shift in trade ties.
Goyal said India looks to UAE as a gateway to Africa, GCC and Middle Eastern countries, CIS countries and some European nations.
“This significantly opens the doors to significant markets all over the world. So when we set out to engage with each other, we were not engaging with a 10 million population in the UAE, I had in mind, and both of us had in our vision, the much larger engagement that this CEPA is going to offer to businesses on both sides”, said the Indian minister while addressing the meet with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi.
Goyal said the India-UAE CEPA, covering merchandise trade and services, has many firsts to its credit, including the fact that the trade pact was sealed in a record span of 88 days.
“And this agreement is not about trade alone, it’s not about trade in goods and services alone; I think it has a huge geopolitical, economic and also, in some sense, a great human element given the huge presence of the Indian diaspora in the UAE,” he said.
Goyal termed the India-UAE Partnership as the “defining strategic partnership of the 21st century”. This agreement gives a new direction, a paradigm shift to this relationship, he said.