The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) is a type of international trade agreement, specifically a bilateral pact between two countries, that is more extensive than a traditional Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It is a concept and a formal treaty, not an act, institution, or scheme. The CECA aims to boost bilateral trade and investment by gradually removing trade barriers and fostering deeper economic integration.
The origin of the CECA concept for India is marked by the India-Singapore CECA, which was signed on June 29, 2005, and came into effect on August 1, 2005. This agreement was India's first-ever comprehensive economic pact, created to strengthen bilateral trade and use Singapore as a strategic gateway for Indian exports and investments. It solved the problem of limited economic engagement by providing a holistic framework that went beyond the goods-centric focus of earlier agreements.
A CECA works by providing an integrated package that covers trade in goods, trade in services, and investment, along with other areas like intellectual property rights (IPR), competition policy, and customs cooperation. Key provisions include the elimination or reduction of tariffs on a substantial number of products, such as the zeroing of over 3,000 tariffs under the India-Singapore CECA. It also includes mechanisms for the temporary movement of business persons and professionals, and provisions for the elimination of double taxation.
The CECA is closely related to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with both terms often used interchangeably to describe a broad-based agreement that includes regulatory aspects and deeper economic cooperation than an FTA. India has signed other similar agreements, such as the India-Korea CEPA (effective January 1, 2010) and the India-Malaysia CECA (effective July 1, 2011).
The India-Singapore CECA has undergone reviews, with the second review successfully concluded on June 1, 2018, which allowed for the movement of four types of business people. The core structure of the agreement, including the chapter on the movement of people, remained the same, but the review expanded concessions, such as increasing the coverage of domestic exports with tariff concessions to 82 percent after the first review in 2007.