India and Oman hope to finalise the long-negotiated bilateral free trade agreement later this month during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit on December 17-18, sources said.

Some of the sticking issues in the FTA, including the Gulf country’s `Omanisation’ policy of compulsory recruitment of locals and India’s fears of misuse of the treaty by China, have largely been sorted out and the pact is almost ready to be signed, a source tracking the matter said.

“We expect the India–Oman FTA to significantly boost India’s exports by providing better market access and tariff advantages for key sectors such as engineering goods, electronics, textiles and pharmaceuticals. We firmly believe that the agreement will deepen bilateral trade and investment ties, especially benefiting MSMEs, w

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