The next round of negotiations between the European Union and Japan for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is set to take place in Tokyo from June 24 to July 3, the EU said in a press release on Monday.
According to the press release, further talks on the FTA are excerpted in October. It said the first round of talks between the two sides, which was held in Brussels from April 15 to 19 April, provided a good start to the negotiations.
The aim of the ongoing negotiations is to secure a comprehensive agreement in goods, services and investment eliminating tariffs, non-tariff barriers and covering other trade-related issues, such as public procurement, regulatory issues, competition, and sustainable development.
Japan is the EU's seventh largest trading partner globally and its second biggest trading partner in Asia after China. Conversely, EU is Japan's third largest trading partner, after China and the United States. Together the EU and Japan account for more than one third of world GDP.
An agreement between the two economic giants is expected to boost Europe's economy by 0.6 to 0.8 percent of its GDP. EU hopes that it will also result in growth and the creation of at least 400,000 jobs. It is also expected to increase EU exports to Japan by 32.7 percent, and Japanese exports to the EU by 23.5 percent.
According to the press release, the forthcoming negotiations with Japan will address a number of EU concerns, including non-tariff barriers and the further opening of the Japanese public procurement market. Both sides aim at concluding a trade pact covering the progressive and reciprocal liberalization of trade in goods, services and investment, as well as rules on trade-related issues.
The negotiations will be based on the outcome of a joint scoping exercise, which the EU and Japan completed in May 2012. In the context of this exercise, both parties had demonstrated their willingness and capacity to commit to an ambitious trade liberalization agenda.
The European Commission has also agreed with Japan on specific 'roadmaps' for the removal, in the context of the negotiations, of non-tariff barriers as well as on the opening up of public procurement for Japan's railways and urban transport market.
"Given the importance that the elimination of non-tariff barriers has for achieving a level playing field for European businesses on the Japanese market, the negotiating directives adopted by the Council foresee a parallelism between the elimination of EU duties and of non-tariff barriers in Japan," the press release read.
EU's negotiating directives also authorise the suspension of the negotiations after one year, if Japan does not live up to its commitments on removing non-tariff barriers. According to the press release, the directives include a safeguard clause for protecting the interests of sensitive European sectors.
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