Japan and India entered talks Monday to avoid double taxation in a bid to boost bilateral trade which has stumbled in recent years as the two countries looked elsewhere for trade partners. Finance ministry teams from India and Japan would negotiate through to Thursday on ways to revise the two countries' tax treaty for the first time since 1989. A revision "would greatly help enhance the economic relationship between the two countries," said Susumu Fukuda, director general of the Japanese finance ministry's tax bureau, in comments quoted by Kyodo News.

Double taxation - in which a company or individual pays tax to two jurisdictions - can discourage trade because of the extra costs involved.

Japanese businesses were early investors as India opened its state-controlled economy, with Suzuki Motor now holding a majority stake in India's top automaker Maruti, but India's economic ties have grown more rapidly with other countries.

India's imports from Japan fell from 2.47 billion dollars in 1998-1999 to 2.15 billion dollars in 2001-2002, the last year figures were available from the Indian commerce ministry. Exports followed a similar pattern.

Japan revised a tax treaty with the United States last March and is in talks on treaty revisions with Britain, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005