Third Round of Negotiations for RCEP

According to the MOFA news release on Jan 24, the third round of negotiations for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership ("RCEP") was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from January 20 to 24. 

In this round of negotiations, the meetings of the Trade Negotiating Committee, in which senior officials participated, and of working groups concerning issues such as Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Investment were held. Also, the scope and method of negotiations, amongst others, were discussed, and it was decided to establish the new working groups on Competition, Intellectual Property, Economic and Technical Cooperation and Dispute Settlement.

The next round of negotiations will be held in China in April, 2014.

Japan, Turkey agree on EPA negotiation to start

Japan and Turkey agreed on Jan. 7, 2014 to begin talks on an economic partnership agreement ("EPA").  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed during talks in Tokyo to launch negotiations on the partnership pact.

(Source:  MOFA web site  http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/kaidan/page3_000616.html )

TPP ministerial session in December 2013 ends without final agreement

On December 10, 2013, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) free trade talk was wrapped up a ministerial negotiation session without a full agreement in Singapore.  At the end of the meeting, the statement of the ministers and heads of delegation for the TPP countries announced that they have made “substantial progress” toward completing the TPP.  Although the trade talk missed the December 2013 target for ending the talk, they expressed the member countries identified potential “landing zones” for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text.  They decided to continue their “intensive work” to finalize the agreement and expressed the intention to follow up negotiation work and meet again in January 2014.

 

The key issues to prevent the whole negotiation was the conflict between Japan and the United States, which have had trade in goods issues including Japanese tariffs on farm products as well as auto import in the United States.  They failed to fill the gaps during the key session in Singapore.  In addition to tariff issues, the TPP member states have also agreed to carry over to next year on other remaining issues such as intellectual property rights and reform of state-owned firms.

The TPP has now 12 member states, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, which represent about 40 percent of world GDP and one-third of world trade. 

The Fifth Round of Negotiations for the Japan-Mongolia EPA

The Fifth Round of the Negotiations for the Japan-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement ("EPA") will be held from December 16 to 19, and 24,2013 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

In this round, negotiations in areas including Trade in Goods, Investment,　E-commerce, Rules of Origin, Customs Procedures, Competition, Cooperation, Dispute Settlement, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) are scheduled to be held.

Third Round of Negotiations on a FTA among Japan, China and Korea

The third round of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (“FTA”) among Japan, China and Korea was held in Tokyo, Japan from November 26 to 29.  In this round of negotiations, wide range of areas such as Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Competition Policies, Intellectual Property, amongst others, were discussed.  While these three counties have certain political tension in area of territorial disputes and interpretation of wartime history, a Japanese trade ministry official said “The three countries are cooperating and the political discord has not adversely affected the negotiations.”  According to major newspapers, the work plan of the negotiation was presented to three countries, however, customs tariff negotiation in Trade in Goods was not significant progress this time, as the gap of opinion among the countries is still large.  The three countries will work towards holding the next round of negotiations in Korea, around February 2014.

Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul announced the launch of the FTA negotiation in 2012 and held the first meeting in Seoul in late March 2013. The second meeting was held in Shanghai from July to August 2013.  It is targeted to reach substantial agreement of the negotiation by the end of 2014.

Third Round of Negotiations on the Japan EU EPA

Press release by Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 15 announced that the third round of negotiations on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement ("EPA") will be held in Brussels, Belgium from October 21 to 25.

At the meeting, discussions were conducted on areas such as trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, non-tariff measures, government procurement and others.

Japan and EU decided to start EPA negotiation on March 2013, and had first and second round of negotiation in April and June this year respectively.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in the week of January 27, 2014.

Second Round of Negotiations for RCEP

According to press release issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 27, the second round of negotiations for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership ("RCEP") was held in Brisbane, Australia, from September 24 to 27.

In this round of negotiations, the meetings of the Trade Negotiating Committee, in which senior officials participated, and of working groups concerning issues such as Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Investment were held, and the scope and method of negotiations were discussed.

The next round of negotiations will be held in Malaysia between January 21 and 24, 2014.
RCEP trade negotiation is expected to finalize by the end of 2015.

FTA utilization ratio of JP companies 36%

According to the JETRO 2013 World Trade & Investment Report, the FTA utilization ratio of Japanese companies in 2012 was 36.9%, which is 3% increase last year.  The difference is shown depending on scale of companies.  Large companies ratio is 49.6%, while ratio of SME is 31.5%.

The definition of 'utilization' means among the companies who conduct trade with countries Japan implemented FTA, the ratio shows at least using one FTA either in exporting or in importing.

The interesting point is significant increase of Asean-China FTA utilization ratio increased 4.5% to last year and reached 29.6%.  This shows Japanese companies move to utilize the FTA between third countries.

Second Round of Negotiations on a FTA among Japan, China and the ROK

The second round of negotiations for a FTA among Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) was held in Shanghai, China from July 30 to August 2.
In this round of negotiations, areas such as Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Customs Procedures, Competition Policies, amongst others, were discussed.

The next round of negotiations will be held in Japan, and the date is TBD.

Second Round of Negotiations on the Japan-EU EPA

According to press release on July 3 from MOFA and METI, the second round of negotiations on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement ("EPA") was held in Tokyo, from June 24 to July 3.
At the meeting, fruitful discussions were conducted on areas such as trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, non-tariff measures, government procurement and others.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in Brussels, Belgium in the week of October 21.

EU's request to Japan is not only tariff reduction in trade in goods, but removal of non-tariff measures, such as unclear industrial standard or incomprehensible process for foreign companies in various government approval in Japan.

Third Round of Negotiations for Japan-Canada EPA

According to the press release by MOFA and METI on July 2nd, the third round of negotiations for an EPA between Japan and Canada will be held in Tokyo from Monday, July 8 to Friday, July 12.

The discussion topic information is not available in MOFA web site.  http://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press6e_000140.html

The 4th round of negotiation of Japan-Monglica EPA

The Fourth Round of Negotiations for the Japan-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement ("EPA") will be held from July 2 to 5, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.
In this round, negotiations in areas including Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Customs Procedures, Dispute Settlement, Investment, Competition, Government Procurement, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), E-Commerce are scheduled to be held.

(Source: http://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2013/0628_01.html )

Second Round of Negotiations for the Japan-Colombia EPA

On joint press release of MOFA and METI, it is announced that the second round of negotiations for the EPA between Japan and Colombia will be held in Cali, Colombia from May 20 to 24.

In this round of negotiations, issues in the areas of Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Rules of Origin, Custom Procedures, Intellectual Property, Competition, Cooperation and Improvement of Business Environment are scheduled to be discussed.

(Update on May 28)
From May 20 to 24, the second round of negotiations for the EPA between Japan and Colombia was held in Cali, Colombia as originally scheduled.
In this round of negotiations, progress has been achieved through negotiations in areas including Trade in Goods and Services, Rules of Origin, Customs Procedures, Intellectual Property, Competition, Cooperation, and Improvement of Business Environment.
Both sides decided to hold the third round of negotiations in Tokyo, and the dates would be decided through diplomatic channels.  Both sides decided, in the mean time, to continue to work to make as much progress as possible in each area in a flexible manner including holding teleconferences.

First Round of Negotiations for RCEP

On May 2nd, MOFA and METI jointly announced the first round of negotiations for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership ("RCEP") will be held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam, from May 9 to 13.

In this round of negotiations, the meetings of the Trade Negotiating Committee, in which senior officials will participate, and of working groups concerning issues such as Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Investment are scheduled to be held, and the scope and method of negotiations, amongst others, will be discussed.

(Updated on May 14)
The first round of negotiation of RCEP was held as scheduled.
In this round of negotiations, the scope and method of negotiations, amongst others, were discussed.

The next round of negotiations will be held in Australia between September 24 and 27.

(http://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press6e_000073.html)

Japan-Canada EPA second round of negotiation

With the TPP negotiation announcement recently, the negotiation of other EPAs are also accelerating.
Japan and Canada will have second round of EPA negotiation on April 22 through 26 in Otawa, Canada.

http://www.meti.go.jp/press/2013/04/20130411001/20130411001.pdf

Japan - EU EPA first round of negotiation

According to the news release by METI and MOFA, the first round of EPA negotiation will take place on April 15 through 19 in Belgium. 

http://www.meti.go.jp/press/2013/04/20130409002/20130409002.pdf

Japan - Mongolia third round of EPA negotiation take place

MOFA and METI jointly announced the progress of Japan - Mongolia EPA negotiation on April 5th.
The summary is as follows:

http://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press6e_000026.html

First Round of Negotiations on a FTA among Japan, China and Korea

The first round of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement ("FTA") among Japan, China and Korea will be held in Seoul, Korea from March 26 to 28.
In this round of negotiations, the scope and method of negotiations, amongst others, will be discussed.

In addition to the announcement of joining TPP negotiation, this trilateral FTA in East Asia is also significant step forward to Japan.


http://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press6e_000003.html

US - Korea FTA origin certification method

Under US-Korea FTA, the origin certification method is by self-certification.  This is not by approved exporter by authority in EU, but is allowed to declare by importer, exporter or producer.

The text is here in page 7 - 8 in following URL.
http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/agreements/fta/korus/asset_upload_file680_12704.pdf

My interest is whether TPP adopt this method or existing method issued by government designated organization.

US, Japan say TPP talks wouldn't exempt areas

On Feb 22, 2013, Joint Statement by the United States and Japan are announced on MOFA web site.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/kinkyu/20/H302013022318425501A/filLink2.pdf

Should Japan participate in the TPP negotiations, all goods would be subject to negotiation, however the statement acknowledged "sensitivities" on both ends, including agricultural products for Japan and manufactured goods for the United States. 

The keywords of this announcement is here:

"As the final outcome will be determined during the negotiations, it is not required to make a prior commitment to unilaterally eliminate all tariffs upon joining the TPP negotiations."

This statement follows the political commitment Prime Minister Shizo Abe made domestically in the general election in December 2012, Japanese government will be able to go forward internal procedure to formally join TPP negotiation.