Europe may shift focus away from Japan: EU<\/p>\n
TOKYO (Reuter): A senior European Union official warned on
\nTuesday that Europe might shift its business focus from Japan to
\nother booming Asian economies as the trade balance with Japan
\nremains badly skewed.<\/p>\n
Europe had a strong interest in the so-called \"Asia boom\" with
\nmuch of its focus on China, members of the Association of
\nSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Vietnam, EU Ambassador to
\nJapan Jorn Keck said.<\/p>\n
ASEAN groups Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei,
\nMalaysia, and Thailand.<\/p>\n
\"These are the new frontiers with the promise of great future
\nopportunities,\" Keck told a Tokyo news conference.<\/p>\n
Although relations with Japan would remain a priority,
\nEurope's shift to other Asian countries could \"carry the risk of
\neclipsing European interest in Japan\", he said.<\/p>\n
\"We in the European Commission nevertheless take the view that
\nany Asia strategy that does not keep Japan in focus would be
\nflawed,\" he added.<\/p>\n
He also urged Japan to buy more aircraft, aircraft engines and
\ntelecommunications and medical equipment from the European Union
\n(EU) to help reduce the trade imbalance.<\/p>\n
\"It is politically important that we should be able to report
\nsome visible success stories in the area of what we call the 'big
\nticket items',\" Keck said.<\/p>\n
By \"big ticket items\", he said he meant aircraft, aircraft
\nengines and telecommunication and medical equipment.<\/p>\n
\"European companies are making sustained and credible efforts
\nto enter this market,\" said Keck, who heads the delegation of the
\nEuropean Commission in Japan.<\/p>\n
The EU's trade deficit with Japan dropped 18 percent to about
\nUS$22 billion in calendar 1994, he said.<\/p>\n
\"However, the bilateral deficit is still too big for comfort,
\nand spectacular success in big sales items has often eluded us,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
The EU would always prefer to settle the trade issue through
\nnegotiations, Keck said.<\/p>\n
\"The EU's policy of good relations with Japan does not mean
\nthat we have renounced our right to press trade issues where we
\nfeel we have a just cause and where we can make a credible case
\nor to defend ourselves,\" he said, without elaborating.<\/p>",
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