India aims to widen Gulf footprint with landmark Oman trade deal

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Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal pointed to the $10 billion bilateral trade between India and Oman.

(PT)

Oman's import duties currently range from zero to 100%, with steeper tariffs on select items such as meats, wines, and tobacco.In return, India has offered tariff liberalization on 77.79% of its tarifflines, covering 94.81% of imports from Oman by value, while keeping out sensitive sectors such as dairy, tea, coffee, rubber, tobacco, bullion, jewellery, footwear and sports goods. For sensitive products of interest to Oman, India's concessions are largely through tariff-rate quotas.

Labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, footwear, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles will receive full tariff elimination.

Petroleum products, the largest export item to Oman at $1.43 billion, are already largely duty-free. However, key sectors such as engineering goods ($812.2 million), chemicals ($241.4 million), and partially duty-bearing mineral products, including mica, coal and other ores ($428.6million), are expected to benefit directly from tariff reductions.