India eyes image makeover with UAE FTA deal in a record 88 days
- IBEF
- February 23, 2022
At a time when India is negotiating ambitious trade deals with the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Union (EU), it is attempting to rebrand itself by signing a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United Arab Emirates in a record 88 days.
The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), according to a former trade ministry official, is a comprehensive trade agreement. It was completed in record time, which could bode well for other agreements that India is negotiating.
India and Australia are also engaged in intense negotiations and have set a new 'ambitious' deadline of mid-March. Similarly, India has been a part of the RCEP negotiations for over eight years before opting out of the agreement. India said that the agreement was unbalanced and would harm India's farmers, small companies, and dairy industry. “The change that we see from the time India moved out of RCEP is that the government is showing some strong political will to go ahead with signing trade deals. Now, the issue is how the government will manage the domestic constituencies that were opposed to all these deals two years back,” Mr. Biswajit Dhar, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
India is currently in the process of negotiating an early harvest agreement or a limited trade agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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