Recently, with which one of the following countries did India sign the 'Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement'?

Correct — D, United Arab Emirates. India and the UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement on 18 February 2022, and it came into force on 1 May 2022 — a few months before this paper was set, which is what 'recently' points to. The agreement covers goods, services, rules of origin, investment and government procurement, and the two governments set themselves the target of taking non-oil bilateral trade to about 100 billion dollars within five years.

• (a)Egypt — India and Egypt raised their relationship to a strategic partnership in 2023 but have no comprehensive trade agreement of this kind.
• (b)Israel — Trade negotiations with Israel have been under discussion for years without producing an agreement of this name.
• (c)South Africa — India's trade with South Africa runs through the older preferential arrangement with the Southern African Customs Union, not through a partnership agreement.

India labels its trade agreements by how much ground they cover. A free trade agreement mainly cuts tariffs on goods; a comprehensive economic partnership or cooperation agreement adds services, investment, movement of professionals and standards. So the name in the question is itself a clue to the depth of the deal.

Anchor the CEPA name to the countries India has used it with — Singapore in 2005, Korea in 2009, Japan in 2011 and the UAE in 2022. The UAE agreement also sits inside a busy stretch of trade diplomacy: India signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement with Australia six weeks later, on 2 April 2022, and that came into force on 29 December 2022. The UAE is one of India's largest trading partners and the Gulf's main re-export hub, which is why an agreement there matters out of proportion to the country's size.

• The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was signed on 18 February 2022 and entered into force on 1 May 2022.
• The two sides set a target of about 100 billion dollars in non-oil bilateral trade within five years.
• India's earlier CEPA-type agreements are with Korea, signed in 2009, and Japan, signed in 2011.
• The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement was signed on 2 April 2022 and came into force on 29 December 2022.
• A comprehensive partnership agreement covers services and investment, not tariffs alone.

• Treating every trade deal as a free trade agreement regardless of what it covers.
• Confusing the signing date with the date the agreement takes effect.

A country-to-agreement pairing, or a statement item on what a named agreement covers.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement came into force in

  • (a)May 2022
  • (b)February 2022
  • (c)January 2023
  • (d)August 2021

  Answer(a) May 2022 — it was signed on 18 February 2022 and took effect on 1 May 2022.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement differs from a simple free trade agreement mainly because it also covers

  • (a)services and investment
  • (b)tariffs on agricultural goods
  • (c)currency exchange rates
  • (d)defence procurement

  Answer(a) services and investment — the wider coverage is what the word comprehensive signals.