Japan, EU make breakthrough on two-way trade agreement
Japan, EU make breakthrough on two-way trade agreement
BONN (Reuters): Japan and the European Union leaders made a breakthrough in years of talks on a two-way trade agreement on Sunday and pledged to work together to win support for a new round of global trade talks, officials said.
At an EU-Japan summit in Bonn, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi also pledged to continue providing aid for the restructuring of crisis-hit Asian economies and gave backing to policies that would foster stable financial conditions on world markets, according to a joint statement.
"We confirmed the importance of our strengthening our cooperation as global powers," Obuchi told a news conference, noting that the EU and Japan together represent some 40 percent of global economic output.
Schroeder, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, represented the 15-nation bloc at the hour-long talks, the eighth in a series of regular meetings aimed at strengthening EU- Japanese ties.
The joint statement said both sides welcomed the successful introduction of the euro single currency and measures being taken by Japan to "enhance the internationalization of the yen."
Economic and monetary union in Europe opened new opportunities for further cooperation between the EU and Japan in economic and financial policy, it said.
European Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan told Reuters after the meeting that the two sides had achieved a breakthrough in four years of negotiations on a Mutual Recognition Agreement.
The accord is expected to boost trade by enabling Japan and the EU to recognize each other's testing and certification standards for electrical appliances, telecommunications equipment, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
"We've broken the back of that negotiation and achieved agreement on the major outstanding points. There is still some technical work to do," Brittan said.
The EU and Japan said in a joint statement they would step up their push for a comprehensive new round of global trade liberalization talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
They would work together to encourage other countries to commit to the new round, which could be launched at a WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle late this year.
The EU, Japan and the United States support a new round, but many developing countries do not.
In the statement, Japan and the EU stressed the need to "jointly promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula through a policy of engagement towards North Korea ..."