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India's free trade agreement (FTA) with the third largest exporter, the United Arab Emirates, will enter into force in May 2022, and a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) was signed last week, the Ministry of Commerce said. The two countries will strive to achieve a leap in bilateral trade volume from 60 billion US dollars to 100 billion US dollars in five years.

The signing of the agreement aims to develop labor-intensive industries and enhance the international competitiveness of textiles, clothing, agriculture, leather and footwear products. After the free trade agreement (FTA) takes effect, the tax rate of most commodities will be reduced from the current 5% to 0%.

According to the data, in the 2020-21 fiscal year, India's clothing exports to the United Arab Emirates totaled US $1.609 billion, compared with us $1437 billion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2021-22. In the next five years, India's textile and clothing exports to the UAE will increase by $2 billion, of which the export of man-made fiber textiles alone will reach $650 million. At the same time, India's clothing exports to the UAE will also be exported to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Kingdom.

According to the above situation, it can be seen that vigorously developing bilateral trade agreements is still one of the important ways to increase the share of textile and clothing. Whether the domestic and foreign demand can be increased, we need to continue to pay attention to the epidemic situation and the implementation of industrial policies.