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On the 23rd March 2013, the European Union and Japan officially commenced negotiations for a free trade agreement. The third round of negotiations took place on the 21-25 October 2013, with the next round scheduled for early 2014. At the 21st Summit between Japan and the European Union which began in Tokyo on the 19th November 2013, EU and Japanese leaders reaffirmed their desire to strengthen ties between the European Union and Japan and welcomed calls for a full and comprehensive Japan-EU FTA/EPA to be completed as soon as possible.
Japan is the EU’s second largest trading partner in Asia, and together the EU and Japan account for more than a third of world GDP. Japan is therefore an important trading partner for the EU, and the Japanese market has a lot of untapped potential for European SMEs. Despite the fact that the trade-relationship between the EU and Japan has historically been characterised by strong trade surpluses in favour of Japan, the statistics indicate that EU-Japan trade is becoming more balanced. However, due to specific structural features of Japan’s economy and society, doing business in Japan is still filled with challenges.
In accordance with the objective of the European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry to develop a global platform to provide EU companies with relevant information about business with third countries, the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation is launching a new website (www.eubusinessinjapan.eu) which will serve as an online portal of information for all EU SMEs seeking to do business with or in Japan. The eubusinessinjapan.eu project will offer:
In preparation for the launch of the eubusinessinjapan.eu website, the EU-Japan Centre has screened over 1,600 websites to provide EU SMEs with a digest of useful Japan-related information from a wide variety of online sources. European enterprises interested in obtaining full access to this information – in addition to the range of side activities which will also be provided – are invited to register for free via this link.
On the 3rd December 2013, the EU-Japan Centre unveiled the first in its year-long series of webinars for EU SMEs wishing to work with or in Japan. The webinars will also be of interest for all EU non-profit or supporting organizations whose activities include assisting EU companies in their Japan-related internationalisation activities. These hour-long webinars will be presented by experts in their fields and will cover a wide range of topics. For a complete list of the Centre’s forthcoming webinar series, please click here.
In addition to the information already accessible on the website, a wide range of expert publications and additional content from the www.eubusinesinjapan.eu project will be made available to registered members over the coming months. Information on various Japanese business sectors, cultural peculiarities as well as strategic advice on breaking into the Japanese market will be unlocked jointly with the Centre’s forthcoming webinar series. We therefore advise interested members to regularly visit the site over the coming months in order to avail of all the advantages of registering.
The EU-Japan Centre will be announcing regular updates concerning our exciting new eubusinessinjapan.eu project via twitter and other forms of social media. To keep abreast of the latest developments please follow us on twitter!
The EU-Japan Centre currently produces 5 newsletters :
