ISDS Case Map
Japan
Japan and the European Union began their third round of free trade negotiations in Brussels on Monday, aiming to engage in full-fledged discussions on tariffs and other trade barriers.
The chairman of Mitsubishi -- a huge investor in Australia's resource industry -- has urged Japan and Australia not to miss the current "window of opportunity" and clinch the long-awaited free-trade agreement.
“Why should Japan take its own underpants off?” a parliamentarian from rural Toyama prefecture told reporters last week, after a senior Japanese negotiator suggested that Tokyo may have to make concessions over a set of highly protected agricultural products.
While Japanese farmers fret that the TPP will cut import tariffs and flood the domestic market with cheap foreign produce, Abe sees the potential for an increase in luxury food exports – specifically pertaining to Japan’s world-class fruit, rice and beef.
Indonesia and Japan have agreed to renegotiate their economic partnership agreements amid growing concern that the deals had failed to benefit both parties equally.
Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday that Japan and the EU should accelerate their free trade talks.
Japan formally offered 75 percent of its goods for tariff liberalization in the first year in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact on Saturday, a source close to the negotiations said.
Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad told Kyodo News, "The Japanese shared with us some issues they have in agriculture, but they told me that opposition is slowly dying down. It wasn't as serious as it was six months ago. In their view, it's manageable."
The 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations are unlikely to ease their individual food safety standards as the subject is not being discussed in the free-trade talks, negotiation sources said Wednesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has renewed a push for a free trade agreement with Gulf countries during a visit to the region.
