India, Mauritius sign Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement
26 Feb 2021
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India on Tuesday signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) with Mauritius, which is also the first trade agreement signed by India with an African nation.
The agreement is limited in scope, covering areas like trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecom, financial services, customs procedures and cooperation in other areas.
Commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan and Ambassador Haymandoyal Dillum, secretary of foreign affairs, regional integration and international trade, Government of Mauritius signed the CECPA in Port Louis on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth, and India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
The CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries. The agreement covers 310 export items for India, including food stuff and beverages (80 lines), agricultural products (25 lines), textile and textile articles (27 lines), base metals and articles thereof (32 lines), electricals and electronic item (13 lines), plastics and chemicals (20 lines), wood and articles thereof (15 lines), and others.
Mauritius will benefit from preferential market access into India for its 615 products, including frozen fish, speciality sugar, biscuits, fresh fruits, juices, mineral water, beer, alcoholic drinks, soaps, bags, medical and surgical equipment, and apparel.
As regards trade in services, Indian service providers will have access to around 115 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors, such as professional services, computer related services, research and development, other business services, telecommunication, construction, distribution, education, environmental, financial, tourism and travel related, recreational, yoga, audio-visual services, and transport services.
India has offered around 95 sub-sectors from the 11 broad services sectors, including professional services, R&D, other business services, telecommunication, financial, distribution, higher education, environmental, health, tourism and travel related services, recreational services and transport services.
Both sides have also agreed to negotiate an Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) for a limited number of highly sensitive products within two years of the signing of the agreement.
The agreement will come into force at an early date, an official release stated.
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