India agrees to export 2 mt iron ore to Japan.

After months of deliberations, India has finally agreed to renew export of two million tonnes iron ore annually to Japan.

Owing to increased demand from domestic steel industry, India and Japan have agreed to scale down the annual commitment by three lakh tonnes.

“Cabinet has approved export of two million tonnes of iron ore to Japan as part of the long-term agreement between the two countries. Indian officials will visit Japan in two weeks’ to sign the agreement,” commerce, industry and textiles minister Anand Sharma said on Monday. He held a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Edano as part of the second India-Japan ministerial business government policy dialogue.

India, once the world's third-biggest supplier of iron ore, has lost its pricing advantage due to high export taxes and freight costs, making the steel-making ingredient from Australia and Brazil cheaper. As per the existing long-term agreement between National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) with Japan, it supplied 2.3 million tonnes of iron ore to Japanese steel mills each year. However, the agreement expired on March 31 last year after which Japanese officials have been pushing hard for India to resume exports, as the nation is dependent on India for its raw material security.

As a bargaining chip India, on its part, has strongly urged Japan to remove all non-tariff barriers on pharmaceutical sector. At present, India’s share is less than one per cent of total Japanese pharmaceutical market and Sharma feels that the huge demand for generic medicines and India’s capacity to meet this demand will prove a win-win situation for both the countries.

Bilateral trade between India and Japan went up by 38 per cent in 2011-12 at $18.31 billion vis-à-vis $13.82 billion in 2010-11. India's exports to Japan mainly include petroleum, gems & jewellery, transport equipment and machinery while imports include iron and steel, electronic goods, chemicals and metals.

As part of business dialogue, the two sides have decided to work together on comprehensive cooperation on creative industries with a focus on contemporary design, apparels, textile and fashion, daily household goods, jewellery, food, films animation and traditional arts and craft. Earlier in the day, external affairs minister S M Krishna met his Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba to discuss entire gamut of issues including the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor. According to Krishna, the two sides have also agreed to increase cooperation in railways and Japan would assist in chalking out a comprehensive master plan for the Chennai–Bengaluru corridor. “We also discussed cooperation in railways including the ongoing dedicated freight corridor project as well as the possibility of India obtaining high speed rail technology from Japan,” Krishna added.

Source : mydigitalfc.com