1st Session Of “India-Mauritius High-Powered Joint Trade Committee:
India hosted the 1st Session of “India-Mauritius High-Powered Joint Trade Committee” under the “India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA)”.
- Bilateral merchandise trade between India and Mauritius rose to USD 786.72 million in 2021-22 from USD 690.02 million in 2019-20.
- Both sides agreed to enhance bilateral collaboration to further increase bilateral trade and realize the true potential of the bilateral relationship especially under the CECPA.
- CECPA:
- Inclusion of the General Economic Cooperation (GEC) Chapter and Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) in CECPA.
- The GEC chapter will enable enhancement of export competitiveness and enlarging the existing scope for collaboration in the fields of Investments, Financial Services, Textile, Small and Medium Enterprises, Handicrafts, Gems and Jewellery etc.
- ATSM protects the country from any sudden or dramatic increase in imports.
- Under this mechanism, if the imports of a product are rising alarmingly, then after reaching a certain threshold, India can impose safeguard duties on imports from Mauritius automatically.
- The same provision applies to Mauritius as well against Indian imports.
- Interactions were held between both the sides in the Services sector with regard to establishing equivalence in certification, skills and licensing requirements of various professional bodies arrangement between the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and its counterpart in Mauritius on developing skill-sets.
- The Mauritian side, while conveying the shortage of professionals in Mauritius in various sectors such as Information and communication technologies (ICT), Financial Services, Film production, Engineering, Health etc., welcomed movement of high skilled professionals from India to Mauritius.
