India-Oman CEPA
Jun 07, 2026
Current Affair 1:
India-Oman CEPA
News:
CEPA pacts are broader than conventional free trade agreements (FTAs). While FTAs primarily focus on tariff reductions for goods, CEPAs typically cover a wider range of economic activities, including:
- Trade in goods and services
- Investment facilitation
- Intellectual property protection
- Customs procedures and trade facilitation measures
- Dispute resolution mechanisms.
India-Oman trade relationship at a glance:
Services trade between India and Oman:
Services trade has also expanded steadily. India’s services exports to Oman increased from US$397 million in 2020 to US$665 million in 2024, driven largely by telecommunications, information technology, transport, and travel-related services. During the same period, India’s services imports from Oman nearly doubled, rising from US$101 million to US$197.7 million.
About the agreement:
Under the agreement, Oman will provide duty-free treatment on 98.08 percent of its tariff lines, covering approximately 99.38 percent of bilateral trade value based on historical trade data.
The Agreement incorporates a modern and fully digitalized Certificate of Origin (CoO) framework, enabling seamless electronic exchange of origin certificates between the two countries, reducing transaction costs, improve efficiency, and facilitate smoother trade flows.
Under the India-Oman CEPA, pharmaceutical products exported from India to Oman generally receive duty-free (0 percent) market access, replacing the earlier MFN tariff rates that could go up to 5 percent on several products. The agreement specifically provides binding zero-duty access for key finished pharmaceutical products, vaccines, and selected active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Strategic importance of Oman:
Oman is located in a highly strategic area, where the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean meet.
It lies close to one of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz, which is situated within the Gulf of Oman. A defining feature of Oman, compared with its GCC counterparts, is its ability to provide safe passage and uninterrupted maritime access during a regional crisis.
This makes Oman a dependable logistical and maritime hub in the region for facilitating trade in goods, including energy supplies.
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