India, Japan likely to sign trade pact by year-end

India and Japan would be wrapping up talks to ink Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) soon even as both sides will sit for the final round of negotiations in Tokyo early next month.

Senior trade negotiators and chief interlocutors will be visiting Tokyo during September 8-10 led by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar for the final round of negotiations. The last round got over on August 17 here. The talks, once concluded, will be followed by final legalities after which the deal will be formally signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit in Japan in October.

“The last round of talks turned out to be extremely fruitful. We hope to close the round next month in Tokyo followed by signing of the deal by the end of the year,” a senior trade official told Business Standard.

Under the deal, India’s main interests lie in expanding access to the Japanese market in the field of services and pharmaceuticals, which does not enjoy much favour within the Japanese industry. However, both sides will also preserve a negative list on which the tariffs will not be reduced keeping in mind the sensitivities of both countries, the official has said.

The deal is expected to slash tariffs on more than 8,000 products ranging from drugs, apparel, agricultural products to machinery, increasing the bilateral trade between both countries to $20 billion by 2012-13 from around $13 billion at present. In the last summit meeting held in December 2009, Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama extended invitation to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh for their next annual bilateral summit in Japan this year.