The Union Cabinet approved signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) between India and Mauritius on 17th February, 2021.
It is the first trade agreement signed by India with any country of Africa.
Key Points
It will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Financial services, Customs Procedures and Cooperation in other Areas.
India has offered around 95 sub-sectors from the 11 broad services sectors, including professional services, R&D, telecommunication, financial, distribution, higher education, environmental, health, tourism and travel related services etc.
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.
Significance
It will cement the already deep and special relations between the two countries by encouraging and improving trade between the two countries. More than 300 Indian goods from agriculture, textiles, electronics and other sectors will get market access at concessional customs duties in Mauritius.
