Second Round of Negotiations on the Japan-India Economic Partnership Agreement

April 3, 2007

1. The Second Round of Negotiations on the Japan-India Economic Partnership (EPA) will be held from April 9 (Mon) to 12 (Thu) in Tokyo, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2. In this Round, Mr. Sumio Kusaka, Deputy Director-General of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (coordinator of the Japanese co-chairs), other Director-General-level co-chairs, and officials from relevant ministries and agencies of Japan, and Mr. Dinesh Sharma, Joint Secretary of Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Indian co-chair) and officials from relevant ministries of India will respectively participate.

3. At the Round, the negotiation will be overviewed in the plenary session, and such issues as the market access in trade in goods, other issues relating to trade in goods (general rules, rules of origin, customs procedures), trade in services, investment, intellectual property, improvement of business environment, cooperation and other areas will be discussed in the sessions at the working-level (co-chair-level) or the expert-level.

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