The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) with Mauritius, providing an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.  The decision is part of the preparatory work for External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Mauritius.

The India-Mauritius CECPA will be the first trade agreement to be signed by India with a country in Africa. The pact is a limited agreement which 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.

The CECPA between India and Mauritius 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), electrical and electronic items (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, specialty 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 & development, other business services, telecommunication, construction, distribution, education, environmental, financial, tourism and travel-related, recreational, yoga, audio-visual services, and transport services.

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