Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)
A CEPA is a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes beyond traditional FTAs by covering trade in goods, services, investment, intellectual property, competition policy, and economic cooperation. India's CEPA with the UAE, which entered into force on May 1, 2022, was negotiated in a record 88 days and represents one of India's most ambitious trade agreements.
- The India-UAE CEPA covers 11,908 tariff lines for India and 7,581 tariff lines for the UAE, with tariff elimination or reduction on approximately 93% of India's export items and 85% of UAE export items.
- The agreement includes 11 service sectors and over 100 sub-sectors, with improved market access for Indian IT, engineering, finance, and professional services.
- India has signed CEPAs with South Korea (2010), Japan (2011), and the UAE (2022), with the India-Oman CEPA recently concluded.
- The CEPA establishes a Technical Council on Investment to promote, facilitate, and monitor bilateral investment activities.
- The agreement targets total bilateral goods trade exceeding $100 billion and services trade exceeding $15 billion within five years.
● Tracked since February 16, 2026 · last seen August 24, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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