Japan, EU to launch FTA talks
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | March 25, 2013 16:01Japan and the European Union were readying to launch talks on a free trade agreement Monday, with a telephone summit expected to be held later in the day, the EU’s trade chief said.
The talks, from 6:30 pm (0930 GMT), are in place of a face to face meeting between EU Council and Commission heads Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which were shelved while Europe grappled with debt problems in Cyprus.
“Only three percent of European foreign direct investment is in Japan, this shows the EU-Japan trade and investment relationship could and should be greatly enhanced,” he said.
The EU is feverishly trying to broker bilateral trading agreements with leading world economies the United States and Japan as it looks to boost its sometimes struggling economy.
Japan is a big prize for exporters, who complain that its large market is heavily weighted in favour of domestic producers, with sometimes eye-watering tariffs and a range of other barriers to entry, which it is seen as unwilling to remove.
Facebook
Tweet This
RSS Feed
Email This Post
Loading ...
