India and Mauritius signed the ComprehensiveEconomic Cooperation andPartnership Agreement (CECPA) on 22 February 2021. The CECPA is the first trade Agreement signed by India with a country in Africa. Both sides have completed their internal legal procedures and the India-Mauritius CECPA will enter into force on Thursday, 01 April 2021.

TheAgreement is a limited agreement, which will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Tradein Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures,Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Financial services, CustomsProcedures and Cooperation in other Areas.

The India-Mauritius CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage andimprove trade between the two countries. The CECPA between India and Mauritius covers310 export items for India, including food stuff and beverages (80 lines), agriculturalproducts (25 lines), textile and textile articles (27 lines), base metals and articles thereof (32lines), electricals and electronic item (13 lines), plastics and chemicals (20 lines), wood andarticles thereof (15 lines), and others. Mauritius will benefit from preferential market accessinto 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.

As regards trade in services, Indian service providers will have access to around 115 subsectorsfrom the 11 broad service sectors such as professional services, computer relatedservices, research & development, other business services, telecommunication,construction, distribution, education, environmental, financial, tourism & travel related,recreational, yoga, audio-visual services, and transport services.India has offered around 95 sub-sectors from the 11 broad services sectors, includingprofessional services, R&D, other business services, telecommunication, financial,distribution, higher education, environmental, health, tourism and travel related services,recreational services and transport services.

Details of the India-Mauritius CECPA can be obtained at the following link from 01 April 2021: https://commerce.gov.in/international-trade/trade-agreements/

Indian exporters have to obtain a Certificate of Origin (CoO) from the authorised Indian agencies to avail the preferential benefits under the CECPA. The online application for CoO for the India-Mauritius CECPA can be made from 01 April 2021 through the common digital platform for issuance of certificate of origin of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce at https://coo.dgft.gov.in/

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