India and Oman will endeavour to implement the India-Oman free trade agreement, signed on December 18, within the next three months, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday (December 19, 2025).

Watch: ‘Signing of the India–Oman CEPA a major milestone’

Under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Oman has offered zero-duty access on over 98 of its tariff lines or product categories, covering 99.38% of India’s exports to the Gulf country.

All major labour-intensive sectors, including gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles, will attract nil duty. These goods, at present, attract import duties in the range of 5-100% in Oman.

On the other hand, India is offering duty concessions on 77.79% of its total tariff lines (12,556), which covers 94.81% of India’s imports from Oman by value.

The Oman-U.S. trade deal was finalised in 2006, but was implemented in January 2009. “The Oman Minister and I have discussed that this agreement, we will try to operationalise within three months,” Mr. Goyal told reporters in New Delhi.

When asked about the areas where Indian businesses can invest in Oman, Mr. Goyal said sectors like steel, energy, education, and healthcare hold huge potential.

“Those which require natural resources will be the ones [where Indian firms would like to invest]. A large steel investment is coming up for producing green steel,” Mr. Goyal said, adding that there is a lot of interest in Oman to collaborate with India because they have large land banks.

One can explore investment in the energy sector, where energy can be converted into green hydrogen or green ammonia and exported to the rest of the world, which will provide Indians an opportunity for exports and create jobs for Indian people, Mr. Goyal pointed out.

“There is a huge amount of potential for processing of large volumes of marble…huge amounts of investment interests in education, healthcare…some people are also looking at battery manufacturing in Oman,” Mr. Goyal said. Oman’s businesses, too, are very excited about collaborating with Indian businesses, he said.

“Already, we have received interest from an Omani dairy to have a joint venture with Amul,” Mr. Goyal said, adding that he has invited Omani firms and the Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest in India.

Confirming that India and Oman will be signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Thursday (December 18, 2025), Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that the FTA offers “immense opportunities” in a number of sectors, including textiles, footwear, automobiles, gems and jewellery, renewable energy, and auto components. 

Speaking at the India-Oman Business Forum in Muscat, Mr. Goyal added that India stands to gain in terms of the access Oman provides to other markets such as the GCC region, eastern Europe, central Asia, and Africa.

India and Oman launched negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in November 2023. During his speech, Mr. Goyal said he and his counterpart in Oman would sign the Agreement in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sultan Haitham bin Tarik.

The Hindu had on December 17 reported that Mr. Modi and Mr. Goyal would be traveling to Oman this week to sign the FTA. 

“This free trade agreement offers immense opportunities in terms of several sectors including textiles, footwear, automobiles, gems and jewellery, renewable energy, and auto components,” Mr. Goyal said. “The sky is the limit in terms of potential, particularly with Oman opening the doors as a gateway to the Gulf Cooperation Council region, eastern Europe, central Asia, and to Africa.” 

He added that there are four broad areas in which the two countries can collaborate with each other. 

“One is in the energy transition that both are committed to, whether it’s renewable sources of energy, battery storage, green hydrogen, that whole ecosystem can open up between Oman and India and together for the rest of the world,” Mr Goyal said.

The second area, he said, was in infrastructure, multimodal logistics, and export warehouses. 

“Another area would be food security,” Mr. Goyal said. “We can help Oman ensure food security, whether we can work together to make this a hub from where we work for the rest of the several reaches that I just described, food parks, there is a lot of potential in this area.” 

The fourth area, the Commerce Minister said in which India and Oman could work together was to develop their startup ecosystems. 

“The startups can engage with each other, build bridges, work on deep tech or smarter ways to work on logistics software services, artificial intelligence, there is tremendous potential to leverage this area as a hub,” Mr Goyal said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday (December 10, 2025) said negotiations for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Oman and New Zealand are in their last phase, and both are expected to be concluded soon. He also indicated that negotiations for a trade pact with South American nation Chile will also be concluded soon.

The talks for a pact with Oman are in the last leg, Mr. Goyal said, adding that New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay is visiting New Delhi on Friday (December 12, 2025) for FTAs negotiations, as that are also reaching the last phase.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry in a statement said after three rounds of intensive negotiations from November 2023 till March 2024, both sides reached an agreement on all CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) components, including text and market access offers.

A Cabinet proposal submitted in March 2024 was deferred, prompting further renegotiations, it said. The fourth round on September 2024 and fifth round on January 13 and 14, 2025 focused on revised offers.

“Following approval of the competent authority, the Draft Cabinet Note for signing and ratification was circulated to relevant Ministries. Both sides are now in the process of securing internal approvals,” it added.

On a trade agreement with Israel, Mr. Goyal said recently he held a meeting with Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat, and both sides have appointed their chief negotiators for the proposed pact.

Last month in Tel Aviv, the two countries inked Terms of Reference (ToR) to formally launch negotiations for the agreement. “We hope that the first phase will happen with Israel,” Mr. Goyal told reporters in Jaipur.

Mr. Goyal was here to participate in the Pravasi Rajasthani Divas. He added that in the last few days, “we have held” a series of meetings with leaders of different countries on trade-related issues.

“India has become an attractive destination for trade and global investors. Several countries are keen to have trade pacts with India,” Mr. Goyal added.

The Ministry also said India and Israel have been negotiating a FTA since 2010, completing ten rounds covering 280 tariff lines or product categories.

Although both sides agreed in October 2021 to relaunch the negotiations, progress stalled due to Israel’s reluctance to provide the meaningful services market access sought by India, particularly regarding the temporary movement of IT professionals and highly skilled workers.

“Negotiations have since been revived, and in November 2025, India and Israel signed the ToR for the proposed FTA, paving the way for the formal resumption of discussions,” it said. Further, it said the India-Maldives FTA Terms of Reference for a trade pact were signed on July 3, 2025, in Male.

The ToR sets the framework and scope for the upcoming FTA negotiations. Negotiations have been launched for the agreement.

India and Qatar, too, are finalising a ToR to launch talks for a free trade pact. A similar exercise is also underway between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).