EU and Japan strengthen Economic Cooperation through High-Level Dialogue

On 25 October, the EU and Japan reconfirmed their strategic alignment on key economic and geopolitical challenges

This was made manifest in their second High-level Economic Dialogue (HLED), co-chaired by Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, with Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, on the EU side; and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yoshimasa Hayashi, with the Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura, on the Japanese side.

Focusing on economic and trade issues, the agenda included global trade challenges, the follow-up to the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference and sustainable finance. On WTO dispute settlement reform, the EU invited Japan to join the multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement (known as the ‘MPIA'), a stopgap arrangement to hear appeals at the WTO, open to all Members until a multilateral agreement on reforming the system is found.

The participants welcomed the launch of negotiations on including rules related to data flows as part the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The first round of negotiations took place in Brussels on 24 October and the next round will take place in Tokyo in December. The meeting also covered discussions on Japan's G7 presidency.

Reports on this week’s EU-Japan High-level Economic Dialogue:

• DG TRADE report in English
• MOFA report in English
• MOFA report in Japanese