Mongolia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement ratified

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The plenary meeting of the Parliament on February 17 approved ratifying the Economic Partnership Agreement between Mongolia and Japan and adopted the draft law on the ratification which was presented on February 12, with 92 percent approval vote. The parliament began to discuss the issue of adopting the above law after running final readings of several other drafts. The initiator's presentation was given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Purevsuren. Conslusions by the Standing committee on Security and foreign policy was presented by L.Bold MP. The initiator’s presentation outlined that Mongolia and Japan settled in 2010 to sign an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). In frames of the preparation for the Agreement, a joint research team has been set up and determined the interests and relative advantages of the two countries. Basing on the results of the study, seven-stage negotiations were conducted by the working group formed under a direction of the Prime Minister of Mongolia for three years starting from 2012. Then a draft EPA was discussed by the Cabinet on January 7 of 2015, and was submitted to the Standing committee on security and foreign policy for a conclusion. The Prime Ministers of Mongolia and Japan signed the Agreement on February 10 during the PM Saikhanbileg’s visit to Japan, introduced Mr Purevsuren. “The Agreement consists of 17 chapters and 10 appendixes along with an agreement on implementation. The agreement on implementation will be adopted after the ratification by the Parliament” he added. In a scope of the EPA, the sides negotiated to exempt over 90 percent of the annual trade volume of taxes in direct manners or within a period of a decade, using the statistical data from 2012 as the baseline assumptions. This issue was discussed by the Standing committee in February 13 and was approved unanimously. Concerning the presentation and conclusion by the Standing committee, questions were asked by Ts.Davaasuren, R.Amarjargal, D.Gankhuyag, Yo.Otgonbayar, D.Sumiyabazar and Ts.Oyunbaatar MPs. The members noted that the Agreement is of great importance for Mongolia in promoting the economic growth, attracting foreign investment and establishing a favorable environment for exports. According to the responses to their questions, the trades between Mongolia and Japan which amounts to about 525 million US dollars in 2012 make up 4.7 percent of the total trade turnover of Mongolia made with 150 countries of the world and totaled to 11.1 billion USD, reports the Japanese data. Some 90 percent of Mongolia’s export to Japan was covered by goat cashmere, cashmere clothing, fluorspar and coking coal, while the majority of imports from Japan contained automobiles and equipment. The working group’s study outlines that the revenue of the State Budget is expected to decrease in the first year by USD 9.8 million, however it is also expected to increase Japanese investment into Mongolia and boost bilateral trade.