Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that Oman has certain similarities with the UAE in terms of their production capacities, manufacturing, and product profiles and India already has a similar pact with the UAE.
“With Oman, there is a very good progress and both sides are very eager to conclude this deal and therefore we feel that it will be completed very soon,” he told reporters here.
The negotiations on the text of most of the chapters have been concluded by both sides.
Oman is the third largest export destination among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The bilateral trade was USD 12.39 billion in 2022-23 from USD 5 billion in 2018-19. India’s exports have increased from USD 2.25 billion in 2018-19 to USD 4.48 billion in 2022-23.According to think tank GTRI, Indian goods worth USD 3.7 billion such as gasoline, iron and steel, electronics, and machinery will get a significant boost in Oman, once both sides reach a comprehensive free trade agreement.About starting FTA negotiations with the GCC bloc, the secretary 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.
Further informing about the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework For Prosperity (IPEF), a 14-member grouping, Additional Secretary in the ministry Rajesh Agarwal said that the member countries have signed the supply chain agreement and “we are looking forward to ratifying the same this month”.
The supply chain resilience agreement would help mitigate risks of economic disruptions from supply chain shocks and improve crisis coordination.
IPEF was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 last year in Tokyo.
The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy (issues like tax and anti-corruption). India has joined all the pillars except the trade one.
Regarding agreements on a clean economy and fair economy, he said as the talks are concluded, a legal scrubbing process is on both to finalise the texts.
The final text is expected to be made public on these two agreements by the end of February and “by March, we hope that the final text” is ready, he said.
Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US and Vietnam are members of the bloc.
