Brussels, 01/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - European and Japanese negotiators meet again in Tokyo this week (30 November-4 December) for the 14th round of EU-Japan free trade negotiations.
Progress has been slow since the last bilateral summit at the end of May, but the parties remain committed to concluding an agreement over the course of 2016, as agreed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya in mid-November.
In an interview with Japanese news agency Kyodo News, which was then reported by Japanese press on 27 November, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström underlined the EU's desire to abolish customs duties on cars in exchange for Japan's liberalisation of its agricultural sector.
“The EU is ready to eliminate tariffs on automobiles provided that concessions received in return will be sufficient. One of the areas where we definitely need to see liberalisation on the Japanese side is the agriculture sector, especially food and drinks”, she said.
In the market access pillar of these negotiations, Japan wants elimination of the EU-imposed 10% duty on Japanese cars, whilst the EU wants to develop its agricultural exports on the Japanese market via a reduction in customs duties on EU products like pork, cheese and wine.
The EU also expects Japan to eliminate its “permanent” non-tariff measures that hinder EU exports to the Japanese market - for automobiles, agricultural and processed products. “The speed of the elimination of tariffs on automobiles by the EU will depend on how far and how fast Japan can solve these non-tariff measures”, Malmström stated.
As regards the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) sealed in October between Japan, the USA and ten other countries from the Asia-Pacific area, it is a “useful reference” but “not a template for the EU-Japan free trade agreement”, Malmström warned, underlining that the agricultural export patterns of the EU and the US are not the same.
Elsewhere, following the exchange of offers access to government procurement which was made at the last round of negotiations in late October-early November, Malmström hailed the Japanese offer as a “noticeable improvement”. “However, the EU's expectations on procurement by local authorities and utilities providers at national and regional level in Japan are higher, and in return, the EU is ready to offer large access to its own procurement market”, she said.
In addition, as regards access to the Japanese railway market, Malmström welcomed Japan's new proposal as an “opportunity to bring an end to a long-lasting trade irritant between the EU and Japan” and “a step towards substantive market access negotiations on railway procurement”. Japan has proposed removing the operational safety clause, which the European railway industry claims limits access to the Japanese market. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)