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© 2017 AFPJapan eyes free trade talks with Britain: report
By Toshifumi KITAMURA TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2017 AFP
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mulan
Abe has no priority, he doesn't know how to count fingers. China is the biggest and the closest trade partner but Abe hasn't spent even one minute on free trade talk with China in his 5 years. Perhaps when US occupies all China's market and start export cars from China to Japan then Abe would regret his anti-China policy. PM Mulan will definitely trade and talk differently and put Japanese interests before all other interests.
Goodlucktoyou
UK desperate economy without europe trade. Japan, desperate economy without china trade. would be a nice arrangement for UK/Japan if the world was flat and none of those pesky mountains and oceans between.
sangetsu03
Like the "free trade" deal with Australia? Japan gets zero tariffs on it's goods, and Australia getting a 19.5% tariff on it's beef after 18 years?
Japan should look in a dictionary and see what the definition of "free" is.
China is the biggest and the closest trade partner but Abe hasn't spent even one minute on free trade talk with China in his 5 years.
Abe is no friend of China, and China is no friend of Japan. Abe needs China to be one of the bogeymen in the region he can use as an excuse to change the constitution and build a Japanese military-industrial complex. And China can use Japan's military buildup as an excuse to further increase it's own military-industrial complex. Don't count on any free trade deals between China and Japan anytime during this century. Both of these countries have long memories, and a long-simmering animosity toward each other.
Alfie Noakes
Hatoyama made overtures to both South Korea and China when he became Prime Minister. That didn't go down at all well in Washington and he soon had the rug pulled out from under his feet.
How dare those pesky Japanese try to be independent! How dare they have good relations with China!
Abe is a far-right wing poodle of the far-right in Washington. He's doing what he wants but it's also what Washington wants.
itsonlyrocknroll
Abe san target exporter, is the US. So economically and politically Abe san strategy has to be focused to find common areas to build and solidify the relationship.
The UK in many ways benefits from Japanese inwards financial/economic investment more than any other EU member state. From a medium to long perspective the UK offers, if full independence is achieved from these crucial withdrawal negotiations, is a opportunity to considerably increase the revenue stream from a future Japan UK trading partnership.
However it would be naive for the UK and the EU to put to much faith in achieving a trade deal beyond the level of an economic partnership agreement at least in the short them
Full OEC numbers......
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/jpn/
Dango bong
Japan does not realize free trade includes agriculture. Japan would not recognize free trade if free trade bit Japan on the rear end
toshiko
Japanese people will be benefited if Japan begins to import agriculture products.
toshiko
I think Abe and Japanese have to remind themselves. Britain does not have Trump. And there is no British military stationed in Japan.
oyatoi
Getting Japan to lower its high protective walls is akin to prying that gun out of Charlton Heston's cold dying hands. Every concession to the outside world is a Black Ships moment all over again.
joyridingonthetitanic
I suspect that powerful industrial voices from the likes of Honda, Toshiba and Hitachi are pushing for a deal ASAP so that their significant holdings in the UK can be secured. It understandable really, but once again the devil is in the detail. As has been pointed out, Free Trade usually includes some form of equal access to each others markets, and that will probably mean agriculture. Good luck with that UK!
Also im not sure that this is a Black Ships moment? Were not talking about a state that has isolated itself from the entire world here, Japan is much more open than ever before, albeit with some protectionist esque policies still in place around some aspects of her economy. I don't see the UK enacting Gunboat Diplomacy on this one!
Alexandre T. Ishii
Before approaching Brexit he should leave his "yes man" with Trump and show Trumpexit!
Hammerhead
@Goodlucktoyou
Sino-Japanese trade grew to $340 billion in 2014, with China emerging as Japan’s leading trade partner and Japan becoming China’s second-largest trading partner. Japanese investment in China followed a similar trajectory, growing to more that $100 billion in 2014, making Japan the leading source of foreign investment for China.
By comparison, two-way trade with the US is worth just over $280 billion.
So, please, get real.
Will Japan include a two way migration agreement with the UK for workers? If the UK is cutting its ties with Europe, it's going to need more migrant workers from elsewhere, and it would far better off with Japanese workers than other places it gets them from.
Japan needs more English teachers if it's going to thrive socially and economically in the future. (English is already becoming China's second language).
Hammerhead
@ toshiko
I don't think it can or should change its agricultural policies until it has revolutionized its agricultural section which won't take place until it becomes critical following the retirement of all its ageing farmers.
Food security is tied in with national security and production has to be protected.
toshiko
@hammer: thank you for your explanation.