India and Oman have concluded the text of most of the chapters of policy areas that their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will cover and the negotiations would be concluded within a short period of time, a senior official said Friday.
Officials of the two countries have concluded the second round of talks for the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) earlier this month in Muscat. The second round followed weeks of the first round of talks that were held in New Delhi between 27-29 November.
Oman is the third largest export destination among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The bilateral trade was $ 12.39 billion in 2022-23 up from $ 5 billion in 2018-19. India’s exports have increased from $ 2.25 billion in 2018-19 to $ 4.48 billion in 2022-23.
Oman is India’s third largest export destination within the Gulf Cooperation Council. About starting FTA negotiations with the GCC bloc, the commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said that India has given them an option that “either you do it as a bloc or you go ahead individually”.
On the progress of the India-European Union (EU) trade agreement, the commerce ministry said that so far, six rounds of talks have been completed till October.
On the India and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) trade agreement, the ministry said that talks are progressing. EFTA states are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
The two regions are negotiating a Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) to boost economic ties.
The last round of talks was held in November in Geneva and discussions took place in areas such as goods, services, rules of origin, intellectual property rights and trade facilitation.
