India-Oman Trade Pact to Open Huge Export Opportunities For Labour Intensive Sectors: Experts

• The India-Oman free trade agreement was operationalised on June 1.

• India has secured duty-free access across 98.08% of Oman’s tariff lines, covering 99.38% of India’s export value.

• Experts said the pact creates new opportunities for textiles, gems and jewellery, marine products, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, processed foods and chemicals.

India-Oman free trade agreement has opened huge export opportunities for domestic labour-intensive and value-added sectors such as textiles, gems and jewellery and marine products, experts say.

Beyond goods, the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) also sets the architecture for deeper services and mobility linkages, they said.

The pact was operationalised on June 1. "Taken together, the CEPA does not merely lower tariffs; it builds a durable framework across goods, services, mobility and investment that should support a sustained step-up in bilateral commerce over the medium-term," Gulzar Didwania, Partner, Deloitte India, said.

He said that the most strategic dimension of the India–Oman CEPA is its contribution to India's energy security and supply-chain resilience.

India remains a net importer of crude from Oman, with crude imports rising from around $0.1 billion in 2006 to $3.6 billion in 2022. The country has simultaneously built a meaningful export corridor in refined petroleum products, which peaked at $2.2 billion in 2022 before moderating to $1.3 billion in 2024.

"That two-way structure reinforces the CEPA's relevance. It brings a more predictable framework to a relationship that is already commercially significant on both sides of the energy ledger and provides for a long-term trade strategy for the Gulf region," Didwania said.

Sanjay Budhia, Co-Chair, CII National Committee on Exports and Managing Director, Patton International Ltd, said the agreement will help boost bilateral trade relations.

"This agreement encompasses trade, investment, services, professional mobility, and regulatory cooperation, creating new opportunities for businesses in both countries," Budhia said.

India has secured duty-free market access across 98.08 per cent of Oman's tariff lines, covering 99.38 per cent of India's export value, a substantial improvement from the pre-CEPA position, where only around 15 per cent of Indian exports entered Oman duty-free.

"That step-change opens commercially meaningful corridors for India's labour-intensive and value-added sectors, textiles, gems and jewellery, marine products, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, processed foods and chemicals, many of which directly support MSMEs and employment-intensive manufacturing," Didwania added.

He also said that Oman's Arabian Sea coastline, which sits directly on the principal India–Suez–Mediterranean, and ports such as Salalah, Duqm and Sohar can support India’s wider maritime connectivity with the Middle East, East Africa and Europe-facing trade routes.