(M.C)
The Prime Minister’s Office wants preliminary negotiations on a proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to be completed before the PM’s first bilateral visit of 2022. The commerce department says work is still underway to identify trade opportunities with the UAE, India’s third largest trading partner.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may inaugurate a proposed free trade pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when he visits the UAE — and Kuwait — in early January, said people familiar with the development.
Aimed at ramping up India’s economic ties with the UAE in a post-COVID world, the pact is being pushed by both nations. Negotiations are underway at a hectic pace.
India’s economic and political ties with the UAE and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf have grown stronger even during the pandemic and the PM’s first bilateral visit of 2022 is expected to affirm these partnerships, officials at the Ministry of External Affairs said.
With this in mind, both India and the UAE are keen to have their respective national leaders showcase the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), set to boost trade and investment from the UAE.
People familiar with the development said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wants initial discussions on the deal to be completed by the time of the visit, so that Modi can inaugurate the pact. But the PMO may not get what it wants.
Bilateral trade between India and the UAE was worth $43.3 billion as of 2020-21, down from $59 billion in 2019-20, and is spread across thousands of traded items. Given that the UAE remains India’s third-largest export destination as well as the third-largest source of imports, commerce department officials said work on the pact is still ongoing.
