Europe-Japan

EU Japan Free Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

eu-japan.com Europe Japan M&A

Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

On 8 December 2017, the negotiations were finalised. After the legal verification and translation processes, the European Commission can then submit the agreement for the approval of the European Parliament and EU Member States.

EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/eu-japan-economic-partnership-agreement/

Strategic Partnership Agreement

https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/19223/eu-japan-political-relations_en

Expect EU Japan trade and investments to increase

Europe and Japan are currently negotiating two agreements in parallel:

  • A Strategic Partnership Agreement, a legally binding pact covering not only political dialogue and policy cooperation, but also cooperation on regional and global challenges, including environment and climate change, development policy and disaster relief, and security policy
  • A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) (sometimes referred to in Japan as an Economic Partnership Agreement, or EPA), to stimulate growth on both sides. Both sides have reaffirmed their commitment to achieve an ambitious and comprehensive agreement

(see: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/19223/eu-japan-political-relations_en)

As of 6 July 2017, the following agreements have been reached – note that the negotiations are not yet concluded (as of 13 August 2017):
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1684

EU Japan trade negotiations – find the EU website on EU trade with Japan here:
EU trade with Japan (EU website)

Preparations:

EU Japan trade negotiations initiated: At the 20th EU-Japan Summit of May 2011 the EU and Japan decided to start preparations for both a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and a political framework agreement (Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA).

May 2012: after one year of discussions, the EU agreed with Japan on an agenda for future negotiations covering market access.

On 18 July 2012, the EU Commission asked the EU Member States for agreement on opening Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Japan.

On 29 November 2012, the Council authorized the Commission to start trade negotiations with Japan.

The EU Japan trade negotiations were officially launched on 25 March 2013 by EU President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Herman Van Rompuy and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

EU Council’s directives to the EU Commission to negotiate trade agreement with Japan (14 September 2017):

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/09/14/eu-japan-trade-negotiating/

EU Japan trade negotiations: First round (Brussels, 15-19 April, 2013)

Press release: First Round of EU-Japan Trade negotions (Brussels, 19 April 2013)

EU team leader: Mauro Petriccione, Director in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade

Japan team leader: Ambassador Jun Yokota (横田淳), Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Second round (Tokyo, 24 June – 3 July 2013)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Second Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) as well as a Japan EU Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Third round (Brussels, 21-25 October 2013)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Third Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Fourth round (Brussels, 27-31 January 2014)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Fourth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Fifth round (Tokyo, 31 March – 4 April, 2014)

Press release by the Foreign Ministry of Japan (4 April 2014)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Sixth round (Tokyo, 7-11 July 2014)

Sixth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Foreign Ministry of Japan, Press release)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Seventh round (Brussels, 20-24 October 2014)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Seventh Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Eighth round (Tokyo, 8-12 December 2014)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Eighth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Eighth round (Tokyo, 8-12 December 2014)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release: Eighth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Ninth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Brussels, February 27, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Tenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Tokyo, April 28, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Eleventh Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Brussels, July 10, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Twelfth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Tokyo, September 18, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Thirteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (Brussels, November 6, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Fourteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Tokyo, December 4, 2015)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

EU Japan trade negotiations: Fifteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Brussels, March 8, 2016)

Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Press Release

  • Japanese Chief Negotiator: Mr. Koji Haneda, Ambassador for International Economic Affairs
  • Leader of EU delegation: Raffaele Mauro Petriccione, Deputy Director-General, European Commission, Directorate-General for Trade

EU Japan trade negotiations: Sixteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Tokyo, April 15, 2016)

Sixteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (April 15, 2016)
English: http://www.mofa.go.jp/ecm/ie/page22e_000769.html
Japanese: http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/ecm/ie/page22_002583.html

  • Japanese Chief Negotiator: Ambassador Koji Haneda, Representative of the Government of Japan for Free Trade and Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations
  • Leader of EU delegation: Raffaele Mauro Petriccione, Deputy Director-General, European Commission, Directorate-General for Trade

Download from EU website: Report of the 16th EU-Japan FTA/EPA negotiating round Tokyo, 11-20 April 2016 (pdf-file)

According to the EU Report, the negotiations were conducted in 14 different working groups covering:

  1. Trade in goods (including Market Access, General Rules and Trade Remedies)
  2. Non-Tariff Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade
  3. Rules of Origin
  4. Customs and Trade Facilitation
  5. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
  6. Trade in Services
  7. Investment
  8. Procurement
  9. Intellectual Property (including Geographical Indications)
  10. Competition Policy
  11. Other issues (General and Regulatory Cooperation, Business Environment, Animal Welfare)
  12. Trade and Sustainable Development
  13. Dispute Settlement
  14. General, Institutional and Final Provisions and Transparency

G7 Ise-Shima Summit, 26 May 2016

Joint Statement on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on the occasion of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan website

Joint Statement on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) / Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

EU Japan trade negotiations: Seventeenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Brussels, 26-30 September, 2016)

Seventeenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
http://www.mofa.go.jp/ecm/ie/page25e_000098.html

EU Japan trade negotiations: Eighteenth Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) (Tokyo, 3-5 April 2017)

Eighteenth Round of Negotiation on the Japan EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
http://www.mofa.go.jp/ecm/ie/page24e_000205.html
http://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2017/0329_001.html

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1649

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1656

  • Japanese Chief Negotiator: Ambassador Yoichi Suzuki, Representative of the Government of Japan for Free Trade and Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations. Mr Suzuki served in the past as Director of Japan’s Foreign Ministry’s Economic Affairs Bureau
  • Leader of EU delegation: Raffaele Mauro Petriccione, Deputy Director-General, European Commission, Directorate-General for Trade
  1. Trade in goods (including Market Access, and General Rules)
  2. Non-Tariff Measures
  3. Rules of Origin
  4. Trade in Services
  5. Procurement
  6. Intellectual Property (including Geographical Indications)
  7. Other issues (Institutions and Regulatory Cooperation)

Report: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/april/tradoc_155506.pdf

Proposals:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/march/tradoc_155450.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/march/tradoc_155449.pdf

EU-Japan Leaders Meeting (Brussels, 21 March 2017)

EU-Japan Leaders Summit (Brussels, 6 July 2017)

A EU-Japan Leaders Summit is planned in Brussels, 6 July 2017, preceding the G-20 meeting on 7-8 July 2017 in Hamburg.

EU-Japan trade agreement, texts of the agreement in principle:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1684

EU-Japan EPA – The Agreement in Principle

Click to access tradoc_155693.doc.pdf

Key elements of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement – Memo

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1687

The EU-Japan agreement explained

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/eu-japan-economic-partnership-agreement/agreement-explained/

Meeting on EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (Brussels, 18 July 2017)

Presentation om the Agreement in Principle, by Mauro Petriccione, Deputy Director General, DG Trad:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/july/tradoc_155845.pdf

EU and Japan Economic Partnership Agreement finalized (Brussels, 8 December 2017)

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1767

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