India-UAE CEPA: Two Years In, What Has Actually Changed for Exporters and Freight Operators

The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement entered into force in May 2022, and by 2026 it has been in operation long enough to move from headline to reality. The question is no longer whether CEPA will change India-UAE trade — it is where the gains are actually materialising and where the practical barriers are preventing exporters from capturing the benefits they are entitled to.

What CEPA has actually delivered on tariffs

CEPA has progressively eliminated or reduced UAE import duties on over 97 per cent of Indian goods by tariff lines. For Indian exporters of textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, and food products, the duty reduction is real and commercially significant. A jewellery export that previously attracted a 5 per cent UAE import duty now enters at 0 per cent. For an exporter shipping USD 1 million of jewellery annually, that is USD 50,000 of duty saving per year — passed to the buyer, used to sharpen the competitive price, or retained as margin.

On the services side, CEPA has improved market access conditions for Indian professional services in the UAE — accounting, legal, architectural, and IT services. For Indian freight forwarders who also provide logistics advisory or trade facilitation services, this improved services access is worth tracking as a longer-term commercial opportunity.

Where the gains are not being captured

The most common failure to capture CEPA benefits is at the Certificate of Origin stage. The CEPA-preferential COO must be issued by an approved body in India — the Export Inspection Council, the relevant export promotion council (APEDA, MPEDA, etc.), or an authorised chamber of commerce — and must specifically reference the India-UAE CEPA. A standard COO issued under the general rules of origin does not claim CEPA preferential treatment. The COO must also satisfy the Rules of Origin requirements — the goods must meet a defined level of Indian value addition, which varies by product category.

Many Indian exporters are shipping goods that qualify for CEPA preferential rates but are not claiming them, either because their freight forwarder has not set up the CEPA COO workflow or because they are unaware that the standard COO they have been using for years is not the same as a CEPA COO. In both cases, the UAE importer pays MFN duty that the India-UAE CEPA was specifically designed to eliminate.

The practical implication for freight forwarders

A freight forwarder who proactively advises every India-UAE client on CEPA COO requirements — identifying which products qualify, which issuing body applies, and how to structure the export documentation to claim the preferential rate — is providing direct, quantifiable value to that client. The duty saving the client realises because their freight forwarder knew about CEPA and set it up correctly is more memorable than any rate negotiation. It is also a service that most forwarders operating on the corridor are not consistently providing in 2026.

Key Takeaways

1. CEPA has eliminated duties on 97% of Indian goods by tariff lines entering the UAE. The commercial gains are real — but only captured if the CEPA COO is correctly issued and referenced.

2. A standard COO does not claim CEPA preferential treatment. The CEPA COO must specifically reference the agreement and be issued by an approved body. Many exporters are missing this and paying MFN duty they should not be paying.

3. Proactively advising clients on CEPA COO requirements is a quantifiable, memorable value-add. The duty saving the client realises because you set it up correctly builds loyalty that a rate comparison cannot disrupt.

Tags:#IndiaUAECEPA#TradePolicy