Brussels, 03/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The quality of the dialogue on deregulation between the European Union and Japan improved this year thanks to the presence of Member State representatives alongside the European Commission, said Katsuhiko Oku, Director for Economic Affairs at the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In the opinion of Mr Oku, who headed the Japanese delegation for the annual dialogue session on deregulation which was held this week in Brussels, the presence of some twenty Member State experts made it possible to have real answers to questions, including those which come under joint EU/Member State competence. So far, the "Commission has spoken freely, but with what responsibility? It could always hide behind the limit of Community powers", notes Katsuhiko Oku. He nonetheless regrets the absence of German representatives during this meeting as several major points concerned Germany.
Japan presented about one hundred requests for reform and 24 themes were tackled during this meeting, including in particular: a) business stays and work visas in several Member States; b) fees and access to licenses in the telecommunications sector; c) Community environment legislation.
As far as visas are concerned, Japan would like procedures in Belgium and Greece in particular to be simplified. Japan complains, for example, of Belgian procedures which, for the granting of visas, require a health certificate issued only by two accredited hospitals in Japan, which is not sufficient for the whole Japanese population. Belgian is at present examining the possibility of accrediting other hospitals. In the same way, Spain, France, Austria and the United Kingdom reacted favourably to the Japanese requests for reducing the administrative delays for issuing visas, it is said on the Japanese side.
In the field of fixed telecommunications, Japan considers that Germany applies discriminatory conditions for access to interconnections between Deutsche Telekom and its competitors. Tokyo also calls for a reduction in operating licensing fees in Germany, which amount to DM 3 million as opposed to DM 2,500 in Japan. The European Commission points out that it is currently studying the German position on this issue. It also remarked that France could adopt measures to ensure the costs for access to licenses are reduced. Japan, for its part, last week indicated it did not plan to adopt the interconnection tariffs recommended by the EU and the United States, as they make consumers carry the major burden of costs.
Regarding the environment, Japan is concerned by the directives on the elimination of out of use motor vehicles and electronic apparata, in preparation within the EU. It is mainly concerned about a retroactive application of the future European legislation and does not rule out the fact that it may bring the matter before the WTO if the legislation is an obstacle to free trade, said Mr Oku.
Japan also evoked other subjects: i) the right for Japanese lawyers to practise in Germany or France; ii) the improvement and harmonisation of corporate law and of corporate taxation in the European single market; iii) the participation of Japanese companies in the preparation of European normalisation directives; iv) an exemption for the Japanese agricultural products from the ban on high risk material; v) the withdrawal of the ban on imports of pet food from Japan; vi) the improvement of European anti-dumping procedures that Japan considers arbitrary, mainly the case of the television camera systems; vii) Commission aid to develop discussions with the Member states on double social taxation.