UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements: Key Takeaways

Introduction

On February 18, 2022, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed the India-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), set to come into force on May 1, 2022.¹ Apart from regular chapters that generally exist in a CEPA such as Trade in Goods and Services, Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, Movement of Natural Persons, etc., this time the two countries have also added a new chapter on digital trade.

Customs Duties

The average custom duty rate for imports into India is 13.8%². On the other hand, the UAE has maintained a tariff rate of 5% for 87.2%³ of its tariff lines and remaining tariff lines are subjected to a nil rate.⁴ However, under the CEPA, India has been offered a duty elimination on over 97% of its tariff lines. This corresponds to 99% of India's exports to UAE in terms of value over the last decade.⁵ While about 90% of India's exports to UAE will attract zero duty from the