India keeps gold, silver, and dairy out of trade pact with Oman
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India has excluded several sensitive products, including gold, silver, and dairy, from duty concessions under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed with Oman on Thursday in Muscat, the commerce ministry said.
To protect domestic farmers, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and labour-intensive sectors, India has placed a wide range of products in the exclusion category without offering any tariff concessions. These include agricultural goods such as dairy products, tea, coffee, rubber, and tobacco, as well as gold and silver bullion, jewellery, footwear, sports goods, and scrap of several base metals.
“The exclusion of sensitive products is aimed at safeguarding India’s domestic interests,” the ministry said in a statement.
For certain products that are of export interest to Oman but considered sensitive for India, the agreement provides limited market access through a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) mechanism. Under this system, duty concessions apply only up to a fixed quantity, beyond which normal import duties will be levied.
Products covered under the TRQ framework include dates, marble, and select petrochemical items.
According to officials, Oman has agreed to allow Indian companies to import marble blocks, even though marble exports are otherwise restricted in the Gulf country.
Under the terms of the CEPA, India will allow duty-free imports of up to 2,000 tonnes of dates annually from Oman.
The government said the structure of the agreement balances expanded trade opportunities with the need to protect vulnerable domestic sectors.
