India–UAE CEPA: Recent Updates Put “Utilization” and Compliance Back in Focus

With trade surpassing US$100 billion in FY 2024-25, the India–UAE CEPA is moving beyond headline tariff cuts to focus on regulatory coordination, market access, and operational issues—areas that will shape how exporters and investors leverage the agreement in its next phase.

India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are using the institutional machinery of their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to push beyond headline trade growth and address the “last-mile” issues that determine whether exporters and investors can actually capture preferential benefits.

At the center of the latest round of engagement: resolving market-access frictions, tightening data-sharing and regulatory coordination, and refining how sensitive preference-linked mechanisms—most visibly the gold Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ)—are administered.

Joint Committee reviews India–UAE CEPA progress as trade crosses US$100 billion

On November 27, 2025, India and the UAE convened the third meeting of the CEPA Joint Committee in New Delhi, co-chaired by India’s Department of Commerce and the UAE’s Ministry of Economy representation. India’s Commerce Ministry said bilateral trade between the two countries crossed US$100.06 billion in FY 2024–25, a 19.6 percent increase, underscoring the scale the agreement has achieved since it entered into force.

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Beyond the topline number, the Joint Committee discussions were framed around practical enablers of CEPA usage—market access issues, data sharing, Rules of Origin (RoO), services, and regulatory matters such as Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) licensing—along with how disputes and trade remedies are handled in practice (including anti-dumping topics).

The ministry also said both sides reaffirmed a shared commitment to expanding non-oil/non-precious metal trade toward a US$100 billion target by 2030, signaling that the next phase of CEPA is expected to be measured increasingly by diversification and higher-value trade, not only aggregate flows.

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Gold TRQ: DGFT moves to competitive bidding; first round capped at 30 tonnes

One of the clearest “implementation updates” under CEPA in recent weeks has been India’s shift in how it allocates the preferential gold import quota.

According to a Press Trust of India report, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has invited bids/tenders for the first round of allocation of gold TRQ under CEPA for FY 2025-26, following an earlier decision to move allocations to a competitive bidding/tender process. The report added that the current round is restricted to 30 tonnes, with subsequent rounds to be announced after the first concludes.

For the gems and jewelry ecosystem, this matters because TRQ administration directly affects landed cost assumptions, sourcing plans, and hedging strategies, especially for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) and firms operating on thin working-capital cycles.

Compliance and coordination issues move to the forefront

The Commerce Ministry’s readout of the Joint Committee meeting also highlighted several “nuts-and-bolts” items that tend to drive CEPA utilization rates:

• Certificates of Origin (CoO) issue-resolution (critical for claiming preference without delays)
• BIS coordination and licensing discussions (relevant for regulated product categories)
• Regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals, including workstreams linked to smoother approvals/technical requirements
• A push toward early signing of a food safety and technical requirements memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India’s Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change & Environment, aimed at lowering technical friction for agri/processed food trade
• Agreement to convene a Services Subcommittee—a signal that services market access and professional mobility topics are being channeled into a dedicated mechanism

What India–UAE CEPA covers and why the “implementation layer” is now the story

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Official references from both sides continue to position CEPA as broader than a tariff-only FTA, spanning goods, services, and regulatory cooperation. India’s government-backed trade portal notes CEPA’s wider scope (services, investment-related elements, and regulatory coverage) and outlines the breadth of tariff liberalization, while the UAE’s Ministry of Economy & Tourism summarizes benefits including tariff reductions across a large share of products and a standing Joint Committee mandate to revise and improve market access.

Taken together, the recent Joint Committee agenda and the DGFT’s gold TRQ shift point to a common theme: CEPA’s next gains are expected to come from smoother compliance pathways and clearer operating rules, not merely from “more tariff lines at lower duty.”

Key takeaways for companies and investors in 2026

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• Preferential access is only as usable as the process: CoO resolution, RoO clarity, and data sharing are being treated as priority enablers—not side issues.
• Regulatory coordination is becoming a deal feature: Pharmaceuticals, food safety standards, and BIS-linked issues are now explicit CEPA implementation tracks.
• Gold TRQ reform is a near-term operational watchpoint: the competitive bidding approach and tranche-based allocations can change procurement strategy and cost planning for eligible importers.

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