Steps taken to address India-Japan CEPA concerns

The Dollar Business Bureau

Praising Japan’s increasing role in India’s economic transformation and development, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Japan and India have been taking adequate measures to implement issues related to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and to improve bilateral trade as well as trade balance with Japan.

Speaking at a seminar on promoting India’s exports to Japan under India-Japan CEPA, Sitharaman said India - Japan partnership has expanded over the past few years and now the identified complementarities are being harnessed through trade and investments to our mutual advantage.

Since CEPA between India and Japan was implemented on August 1, 2011, India’s bilateral trade with Japan has gone up to $14.5 billion in 2016 from $10.4 billion pre-CEPA in 2010. However, India’s trade deficit with Japan has also gone up from $3.1 billion pre CEPA to $5.2 billion post-CEPA

To address this growing trade deficit, the minister said India must look to increase its exports to Japan, especially in the latter’s pharmaceutical market.

Japan has set a target of attaining increasing share of generic medicine to 80% by 2018. This should augur well with the Indian pharmaceutical industry that has been lookout for international markets.

The share of India in the Japanese drug market remains below par and limited to API’s. However, the demand of generic medicine in the Japanese market and India’s capability to meet this demand could be a win-win situation for both countries.

Under CEPA, Japan accorded a preferential tariff of 1.9 % as against the most favoured nation (MFN) rate of 3.5% to Fish Surimi from India.