EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström visited Tokyo and Seoul from 8 to 10 April to attend meetings on the implementation of the free trade agreements signed with the two Far Eastern countries.
It was an opportunity for her to urge Japan to work on World Trade Organization (WTO) reform and South Korea to comply with International Labour Organization (ILO) rules.
Two months after the provisional implementation of JEFTA, the free trade agreement with Japan, Mrs Malmström attended the first meeting of the Agreement's Joint Committee in Tokyo on Wednesday 10 April (see EUROPE 12184/3). The meeting mainly made it possible to adopt several decisions on the procedures for implementing the agreement and to initiate bilateral cooperation to monitor the agreement.
In a speech, the Commissioner also spoke about the joint responsibility of Japan and the EU in maintaining an open and equitable multilateral system, which has led to the necessary reform of the WTO. According to her, a US departure from the Organization would see the establishment of the "law of the jungle".
This subject will most likely be discussed again between the two sides at the EU/Japan Summit in Brussels on 25 April, in the presence of Presidents Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker and the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe.
Korea, labour rights still lagging behind
Previously, Cecilia Malmström had travelled to Seoul on 8 and 9 April to chair the eighth annual meeting on the implementation of the EU/South Korea Free Trade Agreement. Implemented since 2011, this treaty has generated economic gains estimated at around €5 billion, according to a study cited by the Commission.
At the meeting, Mrs Malmström raised the issue of modernising the agreement, but also some 'irritating' issues such as the ban on European beef exports to Korea, the consequences of unpredictable changes in Korean regulations or the length of administrative procedures and their discretionary implementation.
But above all, the Commissioner reiterated the EU's concerns about the Korean shortcomings in terms of implementing the provisions of the trade and sustainable development chapter of the agreement (see EUROPE 12161/21). Seoul must ratify four of the core International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, two on freedom of association and two on the right to collective bargaining, as soon as possible, and bring its labour legislation into line with ILO principles.
In a letter sent on 4 March to Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee and Labour Minister Lee Jae-kap, Malmström expressed concern about the full implementation of the sustainable development chapter of the free trade agreement and called on them to take "further urgent steps".
To consult the letter to Korean ministers: https://bit.ly/2UROR9a. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)