India-Oman trade pact to boost investments, job creation: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) As the India‑Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement came into force on Monday, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the agreement will significantly benefit India.

Goyal took to a social media platform, X, describing the agreement as a defining milestone in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to create global pathways to prosperity for students, artisans, women, farmers, fishermen and MSMEs by opening new markets, boosting exports, attracting investments, and accelerating job creation.

The CEPA immediately grants 100 per cent duty‑free market access in Oman to 98 per cent of tariff lines covering 99.38 per cent of India’s exports to that market, up from the pre‑CEPA system of zero‑duty access for 15.3 per cent of exports.

Goyal said that goods facing a 5 per cent import duty in Oman, worth around $3.64 billion in exports, will become more competitive.

Sectors dominated by small businesses such as iron and steel, textiles, leather, auto components and industrial equipment, could see large international orders after the agreement.

“Increased textiles exports to Oman will boost production and create jobs across major clusters such as Tirupur, Surat, Ludhiana, Panipat, Coimbatore, Karur, Moradabad, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad. Artisans and weavers across India will also gain from higher international demand for their products,” he said.

All major labour-intensive sectors, including gems & jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and automobiles, receive full tariff elimination.

India is offering tariff liberalisation on 77.79 per cent of its total tariff lines, which covers 94.81 per cent of India’s imports from Oman by value. For the products of export interest to Oman and which are sensitive to India, the offer is mostly a tariff-rate quota (TRQ)-based tariff liberalisation.

To safeguard its interest, sensitive products have been kept in the exclusion category by India without offering any concessions, especially agricultural products, including dairy, tea, coffee, rubber, and tobacco products; gold and silver bullion, jewellery; other labour-intensive products such as footwear, sports goods; and scrap of many base metals.

—IANS

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