Press Release: Commission proposes to open negotiations for a Free Trade deal with Japan

The European Commission decided to ask the Member States for their agreement on opening negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with Japan. Negotiating directives will be submitted to the Council which will have to give the Commission a mandate to start negotiating.

Japan is the EU's second biggest trading partner in Asia, after China, and together the EU and Japan account for more than a third of world GDP. A trade deal with Japan could boost the EU's GDP by almost one per cent and EU exports to Japan could increase by one third.

European Commission: Memo/12/574: 14th Japan-EU Symposium on Employment and Social Issues - Joint Press Statement http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/574&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: Speech/12/564: László Andor: Tackling the youth unemployment challenge http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/564&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: Speech/12/562: Karel De Gucht: Why we should open free trade negotiations with Japan http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/562&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

---