India and Japan will ink a comprehensive market opening pact within a month, amid indications that both sides had sorted out differences on contentious issues.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said this would be a move in the right direction for enhancing trade ties and reduce/eliminate tariffs on over 90 per cent of the goods traded between the two countries. The treaty that was slated to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo last month but the formal singing could not take place as both sides were not able to sort out their differences on some issues. “Formally the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will be signed in a month or so,'' Mr. Sharma said at a function here. The free trade agreement is likely to boost bilateral trade, which stood at around $11 billion in 2009-10.
