Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs | July 2006
Japan’s Efforts on Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
Overall picture
Japan’s efforts for EPA (bilateral & regional)
1. EPAs already concluded
| Singapore | • The Agreement was signed by the two Leaders in January 2002, and entered into force on 30th November 2002. • It was decided in April 2006 to start negotiations for a partial review of the EPA. |
| Mexico | The Agreement was signed by the two Leaders in September 2004, and entered into force on 1st April 2005. |
| Malaysia | • The Agreement was signed by the two Leaders on 13th December 2005 at the occasion of the East Asian Summit. • The Agreement entered into force on 13th July 2006. |
2. EPAs under negotiation or scheduled to be launched
| Thailand | The text of agreement was finalized during the negotiations held in June 2006. |
| Philippines | Negotiations on the text of the Agreement are proceeding with a view to signing it as soon as possible. |
| Indonesia | The two Leaders decided to launch negotiations on a bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement at the Summit Meeting on 2nd June 2005 in Tokyo. The 4th round of negotiations was held in April 2006. |
| Vietnam | • At the Summit Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005, the two Leaders decided to launch the Joint Study Group (JSG) from January 2005 with a view to starting negotiations for a bilateral EPA. • At the second JSG meeting held in April 2006, the JSG decided to recommend to the Leaders of both countries that the two countries should launch negotiations on a bilateral EPA. |
| Brunei | • An agreement was reached at the Brunei-Japan Foreign Ministers meeting in May 2006 to begin EPA negotiations. • The 1st round of negotiations was held in June 2006. |
| ASEAN (as a whole) |
• The Joint Announcement by the Leaders of ASEAN and Japan at the Summit Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005 refers to their commitment to make utmost efforts to conclude the negotiations on the AJCEP Agreement within two years after the commencement date in April 2005. • In view of accelerating the negotiations, ASEAN and Japan discussed the structure of the Agreement and the formula of concessions of trade in goods at the workshop held on 10th and 11th February 2006. • The 4 th round of negotiations was held in June 2006. |
3. Current status of negotiations with non-ASEAN countries
| Republic of Korea | • The negotiation of the FTA was launched in December 2003 and six rounds of negotiations were held. However, no negotiation has been held since the end of the sixth round held in November 2004. • The Japanese side is open to resuming the negotiation. |
| Chile | • The two Leaders decided to launch negotiations on a bilateral EPA at the Summit Meeting held in November 2005. • The 3rd round of negotiations was held in July 2006. |
| GCC (Bahrain Oman, Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE, Kuwait) |
• Japan and the GCC states decided to launch negotiations on an FTA covering trade in goods and services. • A preliminary meeting was held in May 2006. |
| India | Joint Study Group has met four times since July 2005. A report will be submitted to the Leaders of both countries. |
| Switzerland | Joint Governmental Study was launched at the end of October 2005. The 3rd meeting was held in May 2006. |
| Australia | An Inter-governmental joint study was launched at the beginning of November 2005. The 3rd meeting was held in March 2006. |