EU Trade Commissioner Malmström in Tokyo this week

EU News 144/2015

27 May 2015

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström will be in Japan from 27 to 29 of May to attend the EU-Japan Summit. The first two days, Commissioner Malmström is scheduled to meet Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa, and other Ministers responsible for policy areas being discussed in the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and Japan. In addition, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström will deliver a speech to members of the Keidanren on 29 May. She will also attend the EU-Japan Summit and a working dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the same day.

This visit will be an occasion to take stock of the ongoing EU-Japan FTA negotiations and see how to take them forward.

Ahead of the visit, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said: "I look forward to a fruitful exchange of views in Japan to give a push to our negotiations. If we are to finalise these negotiations in the near future, we need to accelerate the pace of the talks."

She added: "I would like to see the positive impacts of this free-trade deal on our economies soon, but that does not mean that we should scale down our ambition. Only an ambitious, far-reaching deal will deliver the kind of boost for our economies that both sides are looking for."

The EU and Japan have already held 10 rounds of Free Trade Agreement talks, the last one in Tokyo on 22-29 April. The next round will most likely take place during the week of 6 July. The EU aims for a comprehensive agreement, with ambitious provisions on, amongst others, trade in goods, public procurement, services, investment, and geographical indications.

Downloadable photos and video footage from bilateral meetings, and the Keidanren speech, will be published here:
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/photo/photoByReportage.cfm?ref=028385&sitelang=en
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I103814

For more information, please contact:

Mari Koseki                      Tel: 03-5422-6034 / Mari.Koseki@eeas.europa.eu
Miwako Suetsune             Tel: 03-5422-6035 / Miwako.Suetsune@eeas.europa.eu
Digital Media:
Vicente J. Luna      Tel: 03-5422-6038 / Vicente.Luna-Ganuza@eeas.europa.eu

File Photo: Cecilia Malmström Date: 04/12/2014 Reference: P-026919/00-07 Location: Brussels - EC/Charlemagne (C)EU, 2014 URL

 

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