Japan – EU accelerate free trade agreement

Japanese and European trade and industry association addressed a joint letter to the leaders of the European Union and Japan, urging them to “make all efforts to speed up” the current negotiations on a free trade agreement. 16 September letter from the Japan Business Federation, Japan Business Council in Europe and the European Business Council in Japan seeking to enter negotiations this year. EU and Japan at the recent G7 summit pledged to arrange a free trade agreement “as early as possible in 2016”. Currently, the EU and Japan are negotiating a free trade for more than three years, the letter stated: “While the 16 rounds of talks and negotiations were entered into the stage of maturity, a successful conclusion is not yet visible. … We believe that the EU Japan and familiar with the views of each other, and both sides must now be crucial to the outstanding issues. ” “If in fact, the association called on leaders to do everything possible to ensure that the free trade agreement will lead to commercially meaningful market access, removal of tariff and non-tariff measures, and include an ambitious chapter on procurement.” The differences that remain between the two sides are said to include a request from Japan for the EU to reduce its import duties on cars, while the EU wants to reduce its non-tariff barriers in Japan for cars and agricultural items such as cheese, ham and wine.