Japan business wants Aussie partnership
The Age, Melbourne
Japan business wants Aussie partnership
17 September 2006
AAP. The Japan Business Federation, the nation’s most powerful business lobby, proposed that Japan promptly launch negotiations with Australia to conclude an economic partnership agreement.
An EPA with Australia, a major supplier of coal, natural gas, foodstuffs and other items, is indispensable for Japan’s energy and food security, the federation, better known as Nippon Keidanren, said in its policy proposal.
Compared with a free trade agreement, an EPA covers a wider area of cooperation including free trade and exchange of personnel.
An EPA with Australia should therefore help Japan compete with the United States, which has already concluded an FTA with Australia, Nippon Keidanren said.
But the federation added that Japan should be cautious about cutting import tariffs for or liberalising trade in beef and dairy products as well as copper, zinc and other non-ferrous metals under the proposed EPA because Japanese producers are much less competitive than Australian producers.
