Japan and EU To Meet in July to Talk Trade Deal

Japan and the European Union will hold their next round of talks on concluding a free trade agreement in Tokyo in the second week of July, the European Commission said Wednesday.

The meeting was arranged as EU member states agreed to continue the negotiations after seeing progress in Japan’s efforts to reduce trade barriers.

The commission, which is negotiating with Tokyo over the trade pact, has been urging Japan to further open its market since the two sides launched the negotiations in April last year.

Tokyo is seeking the elimination of EU tariffs on Japanese exports of automobiles and electronic appliances such as televisions, while the 28-member bloc apparently wants greater market access for wine, cheese and pork exports to Japan.

Last month, Fleur Pellerin, French secretary of state for foreign trade, said that France views Japan’s efforts to open up the railway sector, one of the European Union’s key interests, as still insufficient.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unveiled a plan to broadly conclude an FTA in 2015, but Japan and the European Union are still finding it difficult to resolve the issue of eliminating or reducing tariffs.

via Mainichi

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.