Hoping to work towards further expanding scope of India-Japan trade pact: Goyal

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 $27.47 billion (exports of $6.03 billion and imports of $21.43 billion) in 2025-26 from $25.16 billion in 2024-25.

The trade deficit between the countries increased to $15.4 billion in the last fiscal year from $12.66 billion in 2024-25. It was $12.53 billion in 2023-24 and $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.