Japonia i Unia Europejska w obliczu nowej fali liberalizacji handlu światowego

Abstract

The EU‑ Japan relations and a new wave of international trade liberalization

The European Union and Japan have clearly been the heavyweights of international trade for decades. They are the first and the fourth largest economies in the world, respectively. Together they account for nearly one third of the global GDP and almost a quarter of all international trade. And yet their bilateral trade has been underperforming in recent years. Trade in goods actually declined since 2000 – both in relative and absolute terms – and trade in services, as well as foreign direct investment, clearly do not reflect the clout of these two advanced economies. However, since 2010 there have been serious attempts from the Japanese government and the European Commission at finding a way to revive and foster the EU‑Japan bilateral trade and economic relationship. In March 2013 they decided to launch negotiations in order to establish a comprehensive free trade area, or FTA. This article describes developments leading up to that point and presents an analysis of problems affecting the EU‑Japan trade. It does so in the context of a recent surge of international activity as regards trade liberalization through FTA negotiations following the effective failure of global trade talks in the World Trade Organization forum.