Date: 14 March 2023
Time: 8:00am - 9:30am
Location: British Embassy Tokyo, Japan
This breakfast roundtable was organised by the British Embassy in Tokyo and the Trade Policy Hub. The roundtable is part of TPH’s work for the Embassy to review the business utilisation of the UK-Japan trade agreement (CEPA). The project aims to identify problems, including duties or customs administrative issues, and provide input towards future engagement with the Japanese regulators.
The roundtable aimed to encourage engagement with the UK government on UK-Japan relations, engagement with other companies operating in Japan, as well contribute to strengthening UK-Japan bilateral ties. The government will strongly consider the outcomes of the roundtable as they plan how best to support companies.
The facilitators provided a brief overview of findings on:
- Comparison of CEPA utilisation with those under the EU EconomicPartnership Agreement and the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
- Assessment of UK’s overall competitiveness in Japan
- Observations around trade in services
The roundtable has sought participants’ input around the following questions:
- 1) What trade and investment-related issues need to be addressed by bothsides to improve UK’s competitiveness in Japan?
- 2) Why are some trade benefits and preferences not used? What are thebarriers and opportunities in sectors with different levels of use of tariffpreferences?
- 3) How do these issues compare to engagement with comparator markets?
- 4) What future barriers and opportunities do you see in UK-Japanengagement?