As you are already aware, India and the United Arab Emirates signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in February 2022, with the aim of increasing bilateral merchandise trade to $100 billion by 2030. CEPA will grant duty-free access to 90% of Indian exports and 65 % of UAE items at first. It is also learnt that in the next 10 years, 97% of Indian products will have duty-free access to the UAE market, while 90% of UAE products would have duty-free access to the Indian market. Key domestic sectors that are set to benefit include, gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, engineering goods, automobiles, wood &furniture and pharmaceuticals.

The agreement which has already come into effect in the first week of May is expected to generate an additional 10 lakh jobs in India. It is also highly essential for the Industry and Trade at large to be appraised about the key elements of CEPA and especially for those organisations from India, who are already involved in trading and business activities with UAE and vice versa.

The trade relations between the Arabian Peninsula and the Kerala coast date back to at least 2000 years. Most of the exports and business activities in Kerala are GCC Centric and UAE has a very important role.

FICCI had already successfully organised the inaugural session on 'Interactive Session on India - UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and on Enhancing - Trade & Business on 08 July 2022 at Trivandrum

It is in this context that FICCI along with Dept. of Industries, Govt. of Kerala, JDGFT, Kochi in association with Malabar Chamber of Commerce and Calicut Chamber of Commerce & Industry with the support of Federal Bank Ltd and Tata Reality and Infrastructure Ltd is organising an Interactive Session on “India - UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and on Enhancing - Trade & Business” on Friday, 08 July .