India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) covering goods, services and digital trade, and others, which will allow 90 per cent of the country’s exports duty-free access to the UAE. The CEPA will benefit about $26 billion worth of Indian products that currently comes under 5 per cent import duty by the UAE. The bilateral trade agreement is India’s first in the region and the first comprehensive trade agreement with any country in a decade.

“It is expected that the CEPA will increase the bilateral trade from $60 billion to $100 billion in the next five years,” the government said in a statement after the India-UAE Virtual Summit attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

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Through the deal, Indian exporters will also get access to Arab and African markets. India was the UAE’s most significant export goal and second-largest trade partner in 2the year 019 and the eighth-most significant investor with a foreign direct investment of about $11 billion so far. “Both countries are entering a golden era of economic and trade cooperation with the signing of India-UAE CEPA,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Twitter.