Japan was not in favour of any commitment on reductions in tariffs or subsidies without clarity on other conditions like rules on minimum access, subsidies and the like, said visiting Japanese Vice-Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Tadakatsu Sano.
"While Japan is in favour of a formula for tariff reduction in accordance with the Uruguay Round formula, as proposed by the European Union, it cannot take a view on the extent of tariff cuts before the modalities are agreed upon," he said.
Citing India's submission of three papers on trade and investment as a positive sign of its involvement in the negotiations, Sano said the paper on investor obligations would have to be discussed.
India, China and a few other countries have submitted a paper seeking certain obligations to be placed on the investors and home countries in order to check abuse of economic power.
Speaking at a luncheon meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Japanese minister said no country was only an investing or a receiving country.
While India was more of a receiving country, a lot of Indian businessmen had made investments abroad, he pointed out.
Sano, who is in the country for the 3rd Indo-Japan investment dialogue, said India needed to look into the problems of foreign investors to increase the inflow of foreign direct investment.
Stating that Japanese businessmen have had some bitter experiences in doing business in India, Sano stressed joint efforts to address those issues.
Explaining the declining FDI inflows from Japan to India, Sano said not only had the FDI outflows from Japan stagnated because of the economic slowdown, but also most of the investments were getting diverted to China, which had fast emerged as an attractive destination.
"India will have to present its positive image to attract investments," he said, adding that the two sides had held discussions in that regard.
