EU-Japan summit to pave way for trade negotiations

Trade and aftermath of earthquake top agenda.

The European Union and Japan are expected to launch preparations for full-blown trade negotiations when Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, meets senior EU officials in Brussels on Saturday (28 May). 

At their three-hour summit, hosted by Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, the two sides will also discuss the aftermath of the earthquake in March which triggered a tsunami and a meltdown at a nuclear power station. The Japanese government views restrictions on food imports imposed by the EU after the accident as excessive.

Scoping exercise

The summit is likely to call for the start of a ‘scoping exercise’ – bilateral consultations in which the two sides state their expectations about how far trade liberalisation ought to go.

The EU wants to put at least 90% of tariff lines on the table and expects Japan to agree to negotiations on restrictions in government procurement and on non-tariff barriers. But Japanese diplomats said that the EU was imposing too many conditions before trade talks had even begun. Japan is keen on concluding a trade deal with the EU, its third-largest trading partner. A member state diplomat said that in the EU’s analysis, Japan was more interested in a deal following the conclusion of a trade agreement between the EU and South Korea, which is to take effect on 1 July.

EU leaders first held out the prospect of opening trade talks with Japan in their final statement after a summit on 24-25 March.

Japan is the EU’s sixth-largest trading partner. Last year, the EU exported goods worth €44 billion to Japan and imported goods worth €65bn from it.