Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement

WHY IN NEWS?

Acting on the ASEAN and the India-Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements, the Centre slashed import duty on refined palmolein and crude palm oil.

ABOUT COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC COOPERATION AGREEMENT (CECA)

• CECA involves tariff reduction/elimination in a phased manner on listed / all items except the negative list and tariff rate quota (TRQ) items.
• On the other hand, Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) also covers the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership.
• Usually CECA is signed first with a country and after that negotiations may start for a CEPA.
• India currently has CECA with Malaysia and Singapore, while negotiations are on with countries such as Thailand and Australia for finalizing CECA