India-Mauritius free trade may benefit construction, infra

Under the CECPA, India will provide preferential access to Mauritius in regards to several items like surgical equipment, medicine, and textile products that would cater to market requirements on both sides.

This is the first trade agreement signed by India with a country in Africa. The CECPA 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 trade agreement provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries. It will cover 310 export items for India, including foodstuff 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.

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With regards to 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 (R&D), 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, and recreational and transport services.

Both the countries have also agreed to negotiate an Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) for a limited number of highly sensitive products within two years of the agreement's signing.

Image: Technology, such as the proposed ATSM, may feature as a pivot in several segments.

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