Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement signed
Representatives of the EU and Japan met in Tokyo to sign an agreement on economic cooperation. It aims to create new opportunities for the import of agricultural products from the EU, remove Japanese customs duties on products such as cheese or wine, while also protecting EU originated intellectual property in the Japanese market
Negotiations between both parties were launched in 2013. The final wording of the agreement was preliminarily approved in December 2017.
Annually, goods worth approximately EUR 58 billion are imported to Japan from the EU; nonetheless, companies have been facing restrictions on the Japanese part complicating imports. The signed agreement is very ambitious and comprehensive in this respect. Once fully implemented, it is to eliminate 99% of import duties on EU goods, with the value of the customs duties amounting to EUR 1 billion. Removing the duties is expected to increase imports of some products such as processed foodstuffs (by 120%), chemicals (by 22%) or machines (by 12%).
The EU also provides services worth more than EUR 28 billion per year to Japan. The new agreement should make it easier for EU companies to access the lucrative Japanese market. The agreement contains some provisions that should apply across the board to all services, e.g. the option for both parties to regulate some parts of the trade. Also, Japanese state enterprises will have to treat foreign companies as they do domestic ones, with no discrimination allowed.
Finally but importantly, the agreement contains a commitment to fight fraud. The anti-fraud clause is an EU condition for granting tariff preferences for Japanese goods. The tariff preferences may be withdrawn if abused.