India excludes agri items, gold, silver, footwear from trade pact with Oman

Muscat, Dec 18 (PTI) India has protected the interest of domestic farmers and MSMEs by not extending any duty concessions on products across several sectors, including agricultural items such as dairy, as well as chocolates, gold, silver, jewellery, footwear, and sports goods, under the trade pact with Oman.

The comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) was signed on Thursday in Muscat.

The commerce ministry said to safeguard its interest, sensitive products have been kept in the exclusion category by India without offering any concessions.

It includes "agricultural products, including dairy, tea, coffee, rubber, and tobacco products; gold and silver bullion, jewellery; other labour-intensive products such as footwear, sports goods; and scrap of many base metals," the ministry said.

Further, for products of export interest to Oman and which are sensitive to India, the offer is mostly a tariff-rate quota (TRQ)-based tariff liberalisation.

Under the TRQ mechanism, India has extended duty concessions up to a specified quota, beyond which the normal import duty will apply. Goods under this category include dates, marbles, and petrochemical products.

An official said Oman has allowed Indian firms to import marble blocks, which is a banned export item in the Gulf nation.

As per the CEPA, the annual quota for duty-free dates will be 2,000 tonnes.

As per the pact, dairy sector goods, which are out of the purview of the agreement are milk products, cheese, butter, dairy spreads, ghee, and yoghurt.

Cereals like wheat, rice, maize and millets too are out of the pact.

Number of vegetables where no duty concessions will be given by India include tomatoes, onion, garlic, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, beans, radish, pumpkin, lady finger, and bitter gourd.

Similarly, no duty benefit will be given by Indians on edible oils like soybean oil, mustard oil, groundnut oil, and sunflower oil, besides oil seeds like soyabean, mustard and sesame and natural honey.

Further, under the CEPA, India will eliminate import duty in a phased manner for Oman for processed products such as sweet biscuits, rusks, toasted bread, pastry and cakes, papad, dog, or cat food. PTI RR TRB