India, Japan officials to meet next month on free trade pact

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Receiving a political push at the
top, officials from India and Japan will meet here two weeks
from now to take forward negotiations on the market-opening
pact.
Negotiators will work on narrowing gaps in services and
pharmaceuticals - areas of interest to India. However, Japan
has several apprehensions about opening these sectors, an
official said.
The Indian pharma industry, which gets 45 per cent of its
USD 20-billion revenue from exports, is seeking market access
in Japan that has a tough control regime for drug imports.
Japan is also apprehensive about giving access to Indian
professionals in services, which contribute about 55 per cent
cent to the Indian economy, the official said.
Launched in 2007, the officials have completed 12 rounds
of talks.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese
counterpart Yukio Hatoyama had instructed their officials
Tuesday to sort out the issues in the way of the Comprehensive
Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
According to Indian official figures, the two-way trade
for 2008-09 stood at USD 10.6 billion, with imports accounting
for USD 7.6 billion. Comparatively, India-China trade stands
at over USD 40.6 billion.
India has signed market opening pacts with 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc and Korea
which will operationalize from January 1. PTI RR
RDM


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