India and Oman plan to put their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) into effect by May 2026. Currently, bilateral trade exceeds $10 billion. Approximately 700,000 Indian nationals live in Oman, including Indian merchant families with a history of over 200–300 years, contributing about $2 billion in annual remittances.
Oman has proposed zero-duty access on 98.08% of its tariff lines, which encompasses 99.38% of India’s exports to the country. Key labour-intensive sectors, such as Gems & Jewellery, Textiles, Leather, Footwear, Sports Goods, Plastics, Furniture, Agricultural Products, Engineering Products, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals, and Automobiles, will see complete tariff elimination.
Among these sectors, immediate tariff elimination is being provided for 97.96% of tariff lines. India is also liberalizing tariffs on 77.79% of its total tariff lines (12,556), which represents 94.81% of India’s imports from Oman by value.
For products that are of export interest to Oman yet deemed sensitive for India, tariff liberalization largely takes the form of a tariff-rate quota (TRQ). To protect its interests, India has placed sensitive products—such as agricultural items (including dairy, tea, coffee, rubber, and tobacco), gold and silver bullion, jewellery, and various labour-intensive products like footwear and sports goods—on the exclusion list without offering concessions.
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India’s export share in Oman’s global imports stands at 5.31% out of Oman’s total global services imports of $12.52 billion. The Ministry of Commerce has highlighted significant untapped opportunities for Indian service providers across sectors like Computer Related Services, Business and Professional Services, Audio-visual Services, Research and Development, Education, and Health Services, aimed at fostering high-value job creation and enhancing commercial relations between the two nations.
In a separate development, India’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom has received approval from both houses of Parliament in the UK. Expressing enthusiasm about the opportunities ahead, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal indicated that India and the UK aim to roll out their FTA and the Double Contribution Convention (DCC) within the next 30 to 45 days.
India’s exports to the UK increased by 12.6% to reach $14.5 billion, while imports grew by 2.3% to $8.6 billion in 2024-25. Consequently, bilateral trade between India and the UK rose to $21.34 billion in FY 2023-24, up from $20.36 billion in FY 2022-23.
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