India, UAE trade pact: Technical council on investment, trade promotion, facilitation to be set up

Dubai, Mar 27 (PTI) India and the UAE will set up a technical council on investment, trade promotion and facilitation as part of a free trade agreement signed between the two countries last month to boost economic ties.

The two sides will also endeavour to avoid “any unnecessary regulatory burden on electronic transactions”, according to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) released on Sunday. “The parties shall establish a UAE-lndia Technical Council on lnvestment and Trade Promotion and Facilitation (the Council), which shall be composed of representatives of both Parties,” it stated.

For online consumer protection, the agreement has called for adopting and maintaining measures to protect consumers from misleading, deceptive and fraudulent commercial practices when they engage in digital trade. It added that India and the UAE will expeditiously process the applications for granting entry, temporary stay or work permits and extensions submitted by service suppliers of each other.

The objectives of the technical council include enhancing investment and trade cooperation and facilitation between the countries; monitor investment and trade relations; identify opportunities for expanding investment and trade; and to identify issues relevant to investment and trade that may be appropriate for further discussion, according to the CEPA.

The agreement between India and the UAE covers almost all the tariff lines (or products) dealt in by India (11,908 tariff lines) and the UAE (7,581 tariff lines). “India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 per cent of its tariff lines which account for 99 per cent of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms, especially for all labour-intensive sectors such as gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural and wood products, engineering products, medical devices, and automobiles,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

India and the UAE on February 18 had signed the CEPA with a view to boosting bilateral trade to USD 100 billion over five years. Commenting on the agreement, industry body CII said that releasing the text at the beginning of the financial year would help industry in leveraging this CEPA for further boosting our exports.

Both sides have also agreed to a separate annexure on pharmaceuticals to facilitate access of Indian pharmaceuticals products, especially automatic registration and marketing authorisation in 90 days for products meeting specified criteria.

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