India and Oman are likely to sign their proposed free trade agreement (FTA) — officially called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) — in less than three months, a government official told Moneycontrol on August 9.

“Negotiations are complete. The delay is only because the agreement’s text had to be translated into Arabic. Right now, the translated version is going through legal checks. Once that is done, the cabinets of both countries will approve it,” the official said.

In a change from the India-UK trade talks, where negotiations and signing were announced separately, India and Oman plan to announce the completion of talks and the signing of the deal together. The official added that it will likely take much less than two to three months.

Talks for the pact began in November 2023. Under the deal, the two sides will reduce or remove customs duties on most goods and make it easier to trade in services and encourage investments.

Oman is India’s third-largest export market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. India already has a similar pact with another GCC country, the UAE, which started in May 2022.

In 2024–25, India-Oman trade was worth around USD 10 billion — with Indian exports at USD 4.06 billion and imports at USD 6.55 billion. Most of India’s imports from Oman are petroleum products and urea (over 70 percent of imports), along with polymers, pet coke, gypsum, chemicals, and metals.

The official also said that India is looking for more markets in West Asia and Europe for its labour-intensive products, to offset the impact of steep US tariff hikes announced by then-President Donald Trump. These tariffs — coming into force on August 7 and August 27 — are expected to affect USD 50–55 billion worth of Indian exports, especially textiles, shrimps, chemicals, carpets, and gems & jewellery.

India is also open to signing separate FTAs with other GCC members, and talks with the European Union are progressing well, with the next discussion round scheduled for September.