Ngoya: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said he discussed reviewing the current trade pact with his Japanese counterpart, and both hope to work towards further expanding its scope.
The two countries implemented a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in August 2011.
The CEPA review is a long-pending demand of India to balance the bilateral trade.
Prime Ministers of both countries, during summit-level talks in New Delhi last month, announced that since it has been 15 years since the signing of CEPA, the two sides should discuss the pact and make it more contemporary.
“I have also discussed it with my counterpart minister, and we are hoping to work towards further expanding the scope and providing new opportunities for this relationship to grow,” Goyal told reporters here.
Goyal is on a four-day official visit to Japan from August 24. He is leading a large business delegation of over 200 representatives from different sectors.
“We haven’t got down to work on terms of reference, but I think once the teams have discussed, we will be open to expanding the scope, scale and the extent of the engagement because Japan today is one of our most strategic partners,” he added.
Both countries have big plans to strengthen the partnership, he said, adding that both sides have also discussed the importance of balanced trade.
The two-way commerce between the countries grew 9.18 per cent to USD 27.47 billion (exports of USD 6.03 billion and imports of USD 21.43 billion) in 2025-26 from USD 25.16 billion in 2024-25.
The trade deficit between the countries increased to USD 15.4 billion in the last fiscal year from USD 12.66 billion in 2024-25. It was USD 12.53 billion in 2023-24 and USD 11 billion in 2022-23.
However, he said that “we also have to see what kinds of goods we are importing…which are the things which we need, like equipment…which help us in promoting economic activities”.
The minister said he has asked different industries to submit challenges they are facing in exporting goods to Japan.
“Many times these challenges are more about process and language and time, and our mission stands ready to support all sectors,” he said.
The commerce ministry is also supporting industry and exporters in registrations of their products to meet regulatory requirements, he noted.
Under the export promotion mission scheme, the ministry will facilitate and support micro and small businesses in undertaking expensive registrations such as the European Union’s REACH regulations for chemicals.
“For the pharma industry, I have also requested to start registrations all across the world…they should all look at registering all across the world, including Japan,” he said.
Japan has announced to invest 10 trillion yen (about Rs 7 lakh crore) in India in one decade.
He also informed that India has received about Rs one lakh crore in investments from that target.
