Indo–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IJCEPA): lessons for India’s access to agricultural markets

Abstract

India and Japan signed the Indo-–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2011 to liberalize and eliminate tariffs. India’s exports increased, but the gains were limited only to fishery products. Non-tariff measures (NTM)—sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade—are applied on each tariff line; India’s bilateral trade negotiation process should consider these NTMs. She should devise strategies to address it when it engages with a new trade partner in the FTA negotiations and then harmonise these barriers; understand the producers and processors in agriculture products; and encourage increased application of the WTO-compatible NTMs.