India, UAE sign trade and investment pact
India and the United Arab Emirates signed a broad trade and investment pact on Friday that will eventually cut all tariffs on each other’s goods and aims to increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years.
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), as it is known, is expected to boost annual bilateral non-oil trade from $60 billion to $100 billion within the next three to five years.
The agreement, which was not immediately made public, eliminates 80 percent of tariffs on UAE and India goods, while all tariffs are to be removed within ten years. UAE commodities like aluminum, copper and petrochemicals would benefit from the removal of tariffs.
The deal also covers services, investments, intellectual property, and a commitment by the UAE to grant 140,000 employment visas to highly skilled workers from India by 2030.
