EU and Japan Talk Free Trade

EU and Japanese officials are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement. In their fourth round of discussions, the two teams have focused on explaining their proposals for the text of the future agreement.

In particular, trade in goods (including market access, general rules, trade defence instruments i.e. anti-dumping, anti-subsidies and bilateral safeguards); technical barriers to trade and non-tariff measures; rules of origin; customs and trade facilitation; competition policy; trade and sustainable development; and dispute settlement were discussed. 

The EU team was headed up by Mauro Petriccione, Director in the European Commission's Directorate General for Trade, the Japanese side being led by Yasumasa Nagamine, Deputy Minister in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

An agreement between the EU and Japan is predicted to boost Europe’s economy by 0.6 to 0.8 per cent of its GDP. It is expected that EU exports to Japan could increase by 32.7 per cent, while Japanese exports to the EU would increase by 23.5 per cent.

The next round of negotiations will take place in March 2014.