Brussels, 05/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Tokyo during the week of 8-12 December 2014, the EU and Japan concluded their eighth session of technical talks for a free-trade agreement. This information passed more or less under the radar in mid-December, given the packed European agenda at the time. The next round of talks is scheduled to be held in Brussels on 23 February.
The chapters on market access (goods, services and public procurement), technical barriers to trade, rules on investment, the protection of intellectual property (including geographical indications), SPS measures and regulatory cooperation was central to this eighth round, the Commission summed up in an information note published at the end of December 2014. The parties made progress in the consolidation of the negotiating texts, the European Commission added, going on to say that the EU has presented a second list of non-tariff measures it hopes to discuss with Japan.
In particular, the EU expects Japan to tackle a number of problems encountered by companies on the Japanese market, particularly non-tariff barriers to trade and access to public procurement.
The anticipated benefits of the future EU-Japan agreement are considerable, as it is expected to bring about an increase in EU GDP in the order of 0.6% to 0.8%. EU exports to Japan could rise by more than 30%, those from Japan to the EU by more than 20%, the Commission calculates.
Brussels and Tokyo hope to conclude an agreement by the end of this year. This commitment was confirmed by the Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, when she presented her priorities before the European Parliament, on 3 December 2014. The EU is prepared to seal the deal within this timeframe if Tokyo is prepared to respond to the EU's ambitions on non-tariff barriers and public procurement, she intimated.
In 2013, the EU imported €56.6 billion worth of goods from Japan and its exports to the Japanese archipelago were worth €54.1 billion, giving a deficit of €2.5 billion. However, it maintained a surplus of €9.2 billion for its balance of services (€23.3 billion in exports, €14.1 billion in imports). The balance for foreign direct investment stocks (FDI) was very much negative for the EU with regard to Japan in 2012, standing at -€62.2 billion (€161.5 billion of incoming FDI from Japan compared to €98.8 billion in outgoing FDI to Japan). (EH)