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EU and Japan to agree on trade deal next week

X

Xando

Member
Japan and the EU are set to sign a sweeping free trade deal next week after talks in Tokyo made significant progress on the sensitive areas of cheese and car parts.

Although the negotiations broke up around 9pm on Saturday in Tokyo without a formal deal, officials signalled that their political leaders would be able to reach an agreement at a summit on July 6.

A deal would be an emphatic rejection of US President Donald Trump’s protectionism on the eve of next week’s G20 summit in Hamburg. It would send a message that the liberal world order is still in business and that those who reject it risk losing out on trade opportunities.

“We are almost there,” said Cecilia Malmström, the EU trade commissioner. “We have sufficient convergence so that our officials can discuss in the coming days to iron out the remaining details.”

“I am quite confident that the leaders can agree on the summit decided for next week . . . and give their blessing.”

The Japanese side was more cautious. “There has been meaningful progress but significant issues are still outstanding,” said Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister. But he said he was considering flying to Brussels to continue the talks.

Europe and Japan have been discussing a trade pact since 2013, coming close to a deal last December before the talks lost momentum.

A deal would slash European tariffs on Japanese cars and parts, opening new markets for the likes of Toyota, and potentially affecting the competitiveness of British car factories following Brexit.

In return, Japan would cut its tariffs on food, opening up lucrative markets for European farmers to sell products such as cheese and meat.

“The package that we hope to conclude next week will tear down almost all custom duties between us and that is worth a lot of money,” said Ms Malmström. “We hope that we can triple our agricultural exports and EU exports to Japan overall could be boosted one-third.”

She said that both sides needed to “check with our respective leaders and constituencies” what they had agreed and the package was “not finally there”.

One important issue that remains outstanding is investment protection, where Japan has had difficulty coming to terms with the European system of investment courts, which was also controversial in the EU’s recent deal with Canada.
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More here:
https://www.ft.com/content/c2696826-5e67-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895

If i'm not mistaken this is the first trade agreement between two of the big four economies.
 
B

Blablurn

Member
Love to hear stuff like this. Protectionism is not the solution right now. Many countries have benefitted from globalization. Now its not the time to turn your back on it.
 
K

Khaz

Member
Cheaper spare parts for my Toyota, all while introducing the Japanese to the wonders of European cheese and meats? I support it.
 
S

Souldriver

Member
Maybe I'm conflating things that aren't true, but I feel like Trump has really given international cooperation between reasonable, Western countries a shot in the arm.

European leaders have never been so vocal I their calls for cooperation and integration.

Love it.

Even that orange shit stain has a silver lining. Yay.
 
Aizo

Aizo

Banned
Give me cheaper cheese. Yes, please.
So much cheese in Japan is just "cheese," and not any listed type. Maybe there's the qualifier "meltable," but that tells you nothing about the taste.
 
D

Drencrom

Member
Aizo said:
Give me cheaper cheese. Yes, please.
So much cheese in Japan is just "cheese," and not any listed type. Maybe there's the qualifier "meltable," but that tells you nothing about the taste.
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I'm not even a big cheese fan or anyhthing, but just reading that pisses me off. The cheese selection must be nonexistant.
 
A

avaya

Member
With this deal the likelihood of the Japanese car makers moving their operations wholesale to the continent is now moving from "quite high" to almost certain.

Not that I will care for the morons in Sunderland who voted leave, you voted to make yourself unemployed.
 
C

Condom

Member
Dumb investment court system still there, don't even have the energy right now to counter the globalization is paradise' people since that would need a lecture on global capital/kosmopolitians and the local citizens.
 
F

Famassu

Member
Blablurn said:
Love to hear stuff like this. Protectionism is not the solution right now. Many countries have benefitted from globalization. Now its not the time to turn your back on it.
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There have been many reasons to oppose at least the kind of trade deals between NA Canada <-> EU that have been proposed other than protectionism & anti-globalization. Those deals would basically make EU countries playthings of big corporations (even moreso than they already are) and cause a lot of issues to millions of people's jobs'. Not sure about this Japanese one, if it's as bad as the ones with Canada & NA, haven't followed it too closely.
 
F

fantomena

Member
Blablurn said:
Love to hear stuff like this. Protectionism is not the solution right now. Many countries have benefitted from globalization. Now its not the time to turn your back on it.
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Im for protectionism in order to protect local markeds and our farmers and Im glad we've done so far. Self preservation is very important for me and seemingly most people in my country.

We're only members of the EEA and the support for EEA is dropping, slowly, but steady according to some numbers I read a month ago.
 
Nikodemos

Nikodemos

Member
Condom said:
Dumb investment court system still there, don't even have the energy right now to counter the globalization is paradise' people since that would need a lecture on global capital/kosmopolitians and the local citizens.
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As long as no garbage-ass American companies, laws/regs or courts are involved, I'm not too alarmed. That was the issue when discussing the US/Canada deals; there's always the American fascist (as in direct political support of the state for corporations) turd floating in the pool.

Besides, what Japanese company would dare sue the Competition Directorate or the ECJ? It'd be like a cockroach picking a fight with a giant hornet.
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
I'm curious, does this sort of deal have to be ratified by the member states, or not?

If so, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in Downing Street at the moment.
 
P

Patrick Bateman

Member
US/UK in the front. EU in the back:

Rr6o2TX.gif
 
S

Shiggy

Member
Condom said:
Dumb investment court system still there, don't even have the energy right now to counter the globalization is paradise' people since that would need a lecture on global capital/kosmopolitians and the local citizens.
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The court system as suggested by the EU is still better than the secret tribunals that Japan wants.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Also! German festivals might have REAL sausages for once. Everything won't taste like canned hot dogs &#128525;
 
A

Aegus

Member
Serious question, if Brexit wasn't a thing how would this have affected the Whisky industry in both countries?
 
A

avaya

Member
oti said:
Will we get another Belgium showdown this time? That was quite something.
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It shouldn't matter, the agreement is far more powerful when you have full sign on ratified by all member states. It eliminates any argument the morons have that the EU is somehow undemocratic.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Nikodemos said:
Yeah, what is it with Japanese cuisine and charcuterie?
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Dude, taste an expensive af frankfurter at one of these events and tell me you don't feel sorry that no one has ever tasted a real sausage.

I'm just happy it ain't US pork. That shit gets labelled heavily and left in the stores XD
 
J

Joni

Member
oti said:
Will we get another Belgium showdown this time? That was quite something.
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Likely not. Walloon government is in shambles at the moment.

Ac30 said:
No please, at this rate the only time we make international news it's for racist cartoons or the walloons
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At least we didn't make international news for politicians getting paid using donations for the homeless. No idea why that was ignored internationally.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
Considering how much high quality cheese, cars, whiskey, speciality/artisan foods and more esoteric goods Japan wants that the U.K. produces, Brexit leaving Britain out in the cold on this deal just further drives home what a monumental fuck up the people and government here has, and continues to have, made.

I'd bet my arse on this getting basically no media coverage over here though. There can be as many negative consequences as you like to Brexit, but if the general public isn't told about it it may as well not exist.
 
S

ss1

Neo Member
If Japan can export cars to the EU tariff free, what's the point of the Japanese car firms being in the U.K. post Brexit?
 
A

avaya

Member
Stilton Disco said:
Considering how much high quality cheese, cars, whiskey, speciality/artisan foods and more esoteric goods Japan wants that the U.K. produces, Brexit leaving Britain out in the cold on this deal just further drives home what a monumental fuck up the people and government here has, and continues to have, made.

I'd bet my arse on this getting basically no media coverage over here though. There can be as many negative consequences as you like to Brexit, but if the general public isn't told about it it may as well not exist.
Click to expand...

http://survation.com/conservative-p...dies-public-mood-continues-shift-soft-brexit/

ss1 said:
If Japan can export cars to the EU tariff free, what's the point of the Japanese car firms being in the U.K. post Brexit?
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You already know the answer.
 
A

Ac30

Member
Joni said:
Likely not. Walloon government is in shambles at the moment.



At least we didn't make international news for politicians getting paid using donations for the homeless. No idea why that was ignored internationally.
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The samusocial scandal is a very local thing - the only reason we'd hear of something similar in say, Illinois, is because most people on this board are American.

Still very shitty either way.
 
D

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
Drencrom said:
I'm not even a big cheese fan or anyhthing, but just reading that pisses me off. The cheese selection must be nonexistant.
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There are goudas, and other cheeses but the price-quantity-quality ratio is horrible.

The processed cheese slices make me angry every friggin day. Can't make anything nice with those.

Costco helps though a bit. More cheese with ok prices.
 
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