Brussels, 13/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - BusinessEurope, the association of European employers, is expecting any EU-Japan free trade agreement “to mirror at least the levels of ambition” found in the EU-South Korea agreement of 2009. In a context where Japanese industrial tariff levels are already very low, the European Commission's negotiating directives - on which the European Parliament gave its position on 25 October (see EUROPE 10718) and which European trade ministers must amend on 29 November - must pay particular attention to non-tariff and regulatory issues, BusinessEurope underlines in a letter sent to EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy (European Council) and José Manuel Barroso (European Commission) shortly before the European summit on 22-23 November. The negotiating directives must provide for “clear” roadmaps for the elimination of non-tariff barriers “within reasonable timeframes”, and these barriers must not be limited to those outlined in the scoping exercise but should also include other significant barriers which impede the access of EU industries and service providers to the Japanese market, BusinessEurope says. In particular BusinessEurope lists the following non-tariff barriers: - technical barriers to trade on the goods market, including processed foods (especially linked to the recognition of standards and conformity assessment, and opaque regulatory decisions); - opaque bidding processes and restrictions to market access with regard to public procurement; - numerous restrictions and regulatory privileges accorded to Japanese firms on the services market in a wide range of sectors; - Japanese legal barriers to foreign investment (especially through rules on mergers and acquisitions); - weak Japanese competition rules which enable Japanese firms to block access to the market for European companies; - restrictive management of trademark and patent applications by the respective authorities on intellectual property.
“Concerns remains in the European business community regarding the Japanese administration's commitment and ability to really open up the Japanese market”, BusinessEurope states, wanting to be consulted throughout the negotiation process in order to ensure that the barriers are lifted effectively so that businesses can trade and invest in Japan. (EH/transl.fl)