Econintersect: In early 2011 Japan and India signed a free trade agreement that will remove 94% of tariffs within a decade. The deal culminated four years of negotiations. But economic collaboration may go further than lowering trade barriers. Monday the two countries are to start what The Times of India termed the first ever “economic dialogue.” The ministerial level meeting in New Delhi will cover general discussion of economic ties as well as how to boost trade.
While Japan has a much higher level of investment in China than India, Japanese auto makers have started investing in auto making facilities in Chennai in southern India. Japan and India have been talking since 2010 about sharing of Japan’s advanced nuclear electrical generation technology, but there has been growing resistance in India to increasing nuclear power plants after the nuclear plant disaster in Japan in March 2011.
The leaders of the two delegations will be External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna for India and Koichiro Gemba , Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Sources:
- India-Japan free trade agreement: A win-win deal (Jijo Jacobs, International Business Times, 16 February 2011)
- India, Japan to hold first ‘economic dialogue’ (The Times of India, 28 April 2012)
