EU – Japan free trade agreement: “Negotiations to be finished as soon as possible”

Negotiations on the free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan must be finished “as soon as possible.” Even though it is not yet possible to indicate a date, the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, and the Presidents of the European Commission and Council, José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy, agree on this issue. “The negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement between two major players in the world economy is likely to be one of the most important trade negotiations in the years to come,” that is why “we want these negotiations to succeed,” said Barroso at the end of the 22^nd EU – Japan summit.

The agreement, whose negotiations have been made for about one year, would allow to increase both the EU and the Japanese GDP significantly, according to EU estimates. It is especially supposed to increase trade exchanges between the two powers, which have been sharply decreasing for years. Since 2002 in fact, the percentage of imports from Japan decrease for more than 50 percent, and export decreased from 4.9 percent to 3.1 percent. Last year Japan was the seventh trading partner of the Union, while in 2002 it was the fourth. The main European exporters in Japan are Germany, France, Italy and the UK, while the main importers are Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium. Most of imports (66 percent) and exports (37 percent) concern machinery and vehicles. And this is the crucial point of the difficult negotiations, given that Japan would EU custom duties to be reduced for vehicles imports, in order to increase its share in the European market. On its side, Brussels is to release shortly a report of the progresses made so far, in particular with regard to the reduction of Japanese non-tariff measures, which are particularly important for Member States.

“Negotiations have now reached a critical phase,” acknowledged Van Rompuy, who added that “we must raise the level of ambition and bring these negotiations to a speedy and successful conclusion. Further opening of our markets will benefit trade and economic growth world wide.”