What is difference between CECA and CEPA?

CEPA stands for Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and CECA stands for Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Recently India signed a CEPA with Japan and CECA with Malaysia. India had also signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea. With Singapore signed CECA. The terms that make difference are “Cooperation” and “partnership”. Both these terms are synonymous with each other but the major “technical” difference between a CECA and CEPA is that CECA involves only “tariff reduction/elimination in a phased manner on listed / all items except the negative list and tariff rate quota (TRQ) items” , CEPA also covers the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership. So CEPA is a wider term that CECA and has the widest coverage.
Please note that usually CECA is signed first with a country and after that negotiations may start for a CEPA. For example, India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (CECA) was signed in December, 1998 and came into operation since March, 2000. India completed the tariff elimination programme in March 2003, Sri Lanka scheduled to reach zero duty by 2008. After that the two countries have since initiated negotiations in August 2004 on comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which covers trade in services and investment.

12 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    March 10, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    @Admin: Thanks for the comprehensive and a fast reply…Appreciate professionalism.
    One more doubt:
    Is there any difference between Corporation and Corporate Tax??

  2. Anonymous

    March 20, 2011 at 5:14 am

    Very comprehensive and well informative answer

  3. Anonymous

    March 21, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    Hi, does this mean CECA is the same as FTA? Why is it specifically called FTA in case of India-ASEAN and CECA in case of India – Malaysia

  4. Admin

    March 21, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    CECA is a more comprehensive agreement than just FTA or the PTA. FTA and PTA are sometimes not able to guard the country's economy against the protectionist measures of the country with which they are entered into. One example is China. India looks for a CECA with China but NOT for an FTA wit this neighbour.

  5. Anonymous

    March 25, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    The objectives of CECA are:
    to strengthen and enhance the economic, trade and investment cooperation between the Parties
    to explore new areas of economic cooperation and develop appropriate measures for closer
    economic cooperation between the Parties
    to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of their manufacturing and services sectors and
    to expand trade and investment between the Parties, including joint exploitation of commercial
    and economic opportunities in non-Parties

    source:ministry of commerce

  6. venuramakrishnan

    November 18, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    what is the difference between Equity,shares,bonds,security,Treasure bond, corporate bond in the economic perspective?

  7. Sudeep

    February 6, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    FTA is when dealing with a group of countries like a bloc – ASEAN, EU.. For bilateral trade we use CECA

  8. 100RAB84A

    February 4, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    I have doubt in your explanation …..CEPA and FTA are intertwined.Both are similar to each other sir .
    MICECA (MALAYSIA INDIA CECA) differs from INDIAN ASEAN FTA due to its wide coverage apart from trades in goods covered under FTA. MICECA also covers trades in services ,investment and economic cooperation.

    • Neeraj Kumar Gupta

      January 27, 2018 at 12:15 pm

      FTA are generally deals with only trade of Goods while CECA
      covers
      Goods, services and investment also.

  9. Aritra

    February 22, 2014 at 12:06 am

    well explained..appreciate your effort! This site has truly become a one-stop destination for any competitive exam!

  10. LALIT PAUL

    March 1, 2015 at 11:51 am

    well explained but things are not explained ,for what are the future opportunities in both ceca and cepa

  11. chandan

    December 2, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    Please go through this.It gives explanation of all related topics:

    http://commerce.nic.in/trade/FAQ_on_FTA_9April2014.pdf?id=9&trade=i

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply