ISDS Case Map
Japan
Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa expressed hope Friday for talks with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to achieve a political breakthrough in bilateral negotiations to seal a free trade agreement by the end of July, the target date set by the two governments.
The signing of an economic partnership agreement between Japan and the Philippines is likely to be pushed back to at least the end of the year due to disagreements over investment protections and quotas for care providers.
Eighteen months of talks over a proposed bilateral trade agreement between Japan and South Korea are on the verge of collapse because Japan's Agriculture Ministry has blocked meaningful dialogue on trade in farm and marine products, a South Korean diplomat said yesterday.
As Thailand prepares for new rounds of free trade
talks with Japan and the United States, AIDS activists are voicing
increasing concern that patients here could lose access to cheap,
life-prolonging drugs.
The Japanese government is considering the position of the Philippines that there should be no quota and volume limit on the entry of Filipino IT and medical professionals to Japan but rather the entry of Filipino labor to Japan be driven by demand and qualification.
The Philippines government is completing its "clean-up drive" on the country's legal and dispute settlement mechanism before finally giving its final go signal to the implementation of the country's first bilateral free trade area (FTA) deal, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
Prospects for Japan signing free trade agreements with Thailand and South Korea are being stymied because the countries remain seriously divided on key industrial and farm sectors, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday quoting diplomatic sources.
The Thailand-Japan free trade area (FTA) negotiations will resume in July, with discussions over liberalising steel imports postponed until later rounds, even though Tokyo has come up with a new proposal on the controversial issue, according to Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.
Prospects for Japan signing free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Thailand and South Korea are being stymied because the countries remain seriously divided on issues concerning key industrial and farm sectors, diplomatic sources have said.
The multi-sectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) has urged the government for transparency in the crafting of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as it expressed fears that the deal does not provide "safeguards" to the country's industrial goods and includes regulation and competition issues.
