India-Oman to sign Free Trade Agreement

Why in News?

Recently, confirming that India and Oman will be signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Commerce Minister said that FTA offers “immense opportunities” in a number of sectors.

FTA is an agreement between the country(s) or regional blocks to reduce or eliminate trade barriers, though mutual negotiations with a view to enhancing trade.

• India and Oman are set to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to enhance bilateral trade, investment, and market access.
• The FTA covers goods, services, and investments.
• Oman is a key partner for India in the Gulf region.
• Collaboration –Through 4 broad areas.
  • Energy transition, whether its renewable sources of energy, battery storage, green hydrogen, and the whole ecosystem can be opened up.
  • Infrastructure, multimodal logistics, and export warehouses.
  • Food security, India helping Oman ensure food security.
  • To develop start-up ecosystems.
• The startups can engage with each other, build bridges, work on deep tech or smarter ways to work on logistics software services, artificial intelligence.
• Beneficiary sectors– It includes textiles, footwear, automobiles, gems and jewellery, renewable energy, and auto components.
• Significance – India stands to gain in terms of the access Oman provides to other markets such as the Gulf Cooperation Council region, eastern Europe, central Asia, and Africa.

References

The Hindu| India-Oman to sign Free Trade Agreement