By Martin Banks - 3rd May 2011
This is an important moment because Japan, after the earthquake, is suffering
Satoru Satoh
The EU has been urged to press ahead with the start of negotiations on a free trade agreement with Japan.
An FTA was top of the agenda when European commission president José Manuel Barroso and EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht met Takeaki Matsumoto, the Japanese foreign minister in Brussels on Monday.
Matsumoto told the EU officials Japan wants the EU to give a "clear" political signal that it intends to launch FTA talks when the two sides meet for a summit in Brussels later this month.
The minister's spokesman Satoru Satoh told this website on Monday that the forthcoming summit "must be used" to strengthen the EU-Japan relationship.
He said Tokyo is looking for progress on trade, in particular on the issues of non-tariff barriers and restrictions on public procurement.
He said that at Monday's discussions, which also included Michel Barnier, the EU commissioner for the internal market, "both sides" had shown an interest in boosting relations.
In recent years, the European share of the Japanese exports market has been declining, from a high of 18 per cent in 1990 to just 11 per cent in 2010. Currently, almost half of Japanese trade is with its Asian neighbours, such as China and Vietnam.
However, Satoh said, "We'd like to reverse this trend and diversify more and an FTA is one of the tools to achieve this."
The official said, "This is an important moment because Japan, after the earthquake, is suffering. While we appreciate the support we have had from the EU, signalling the start of FTA negotiations would be a very good gesture."
He said that European companies, as well as those in Japan, stood to gain from a trade deal, adding, "An FTA can be beneficial to EU consumers because it would open up a potentially huge market for member states."
He pointed out that the "onus" was on the commission to spell out the potential benefits of an FTA to member states, which must sanction such an agreement.
Japan, he said, has also urged the EU to relax restrictions on food products imported from the country in the wake of the nuclear disaster that followed the recent earthquake.
Restrictions were imposed amid continuing fears about contamination from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
The European commission said the move was 'precautionary'.
But Satoh said, "The risk levels are nowhere near as bad as they were."
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