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Objective: The New-generation trade agreements, which include the agreement with Japan, provide wide coverage - not only the liberalisation of trade in goods or services but also the protection of intellectual property rights, the public procurement market, sustainable development and others. This paper aims to demonstrate key provisions and (both ex post and ex ante) opportunities that the agreement creates for EU companies. Research Design & Methods: The research methods include a critical review of existing literature, an analysis of relevant legal and official documents of the European Union, as well as the provisions of the EU-Japan trade agreement. The empirical research focused on Eurostat data. Findings: The provisions of the EU-Japan agreement provide an incentive for European companies to strengthen their position on the Japanese market. The elimination of import duties and other barriers to trade in Japan in relation to certain agricultural products on the entry into force of the agreement contributed to higher exports from the EU for these groups of goods. What might be expected is the additional effect of the liberalisation of bilateral trade on third countries. In fact, standards or rules agreed by Japan and the EU may become even more attractive to third countries, as their adoption would facilitate access to two large markets. Implications & Recommendations: Japan is a relatively important trading partner for the EU and vice versa. One of the biggest achievements of the agreement made between the European Union and Japan includes the wide and deep liberalisation of trade in goods. Despite the fact that the overall level of tariff protection is relatively low, there are still some groups of goods for which the protection in the form of customs duties constitutes an important barrier, as a result of which the conditions for competing on the partner's market deteriorate. It seems that EU entrepreneurs should make more use of the opportunities which are created by the provisions of the free trade agreement with Japan. So far, the trade crisis caused by the pandemic has stood in the way. Contribution & Value Added: Research conducted so far is of an ex ante nature, both regarding the provisions of the agreement (publications written before 2018) and the evaluation of its potential effects on economy, trade, production or selected sectors. The research carried out in this article is of an ex post nature; it covers the period following the entry into force of the agreement and does not present any growth scenarios or forecasts, as was the case in the existing research. The article attempted to juxtapose the provisions of the agreement with Japan with trade conditions applicable to EU companies, as well as with the growth rate, volume and coverage of bilateral trade in goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the trade and welfare implications of a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan. In 2019, the two countries signed a "stage one" trade agreement, with the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA) and the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement as two small trade agreements. A comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) is currently under discussion between Washington and Tokyo, with the U.S. government alternatively joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Based on the theoretical model of Caliendo and Parro (Rev Econ Stud, 82(1):1–44, 2015) , I analyze the welfare gains of such a bilateral FTA in the style of Aichele et al. (Where is the value added? China's WTO entry, trade and value chains, ZBW-Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz, 2014). I simulate trade and welfare impacts for the USJTA and the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement, as well as for a deep bilateral FTA. In addition, I examine and compare the welfare implications of the established CPTPP with the scenario of the U.S. or China joining CPTPP. My findings show that Japan's welfare increases by 0.3% and U.S. welfare increases by 0.14% as a result of the FTA. Welfare of both countries would increase if the U.S. entered CPTPP, with Japanese welfare being even higher if China acceded to CPTPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos Europeos de Deusto is the property of Universidad de Deusto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the trade restrictiveness of product-specific rules of origin (PSRs) in the comprehensive sets of free trade agreements (FTAs) for Japan and the United States, focusing on their similarities and dissimilarities. The most distinctive dissimilarities are the major PSR types and their variation among FTAs. Japan's FTAs use the selective type ("change in tariff classification [CTC] or regional value content [RVC]") most intensively. In contrast, a few U.S. FTAs use RVC and others use CTC most intensively, and the distribution of simplified PSR types appears to be almost the same among FTAs in each group. The detailed PSR types, however, are likely to be more heterogeneous and complicated in U.S. FTAs than in Japan's FTAs. Such dissimilar features are more salient in machinery sectors with dense global value chains (GVCs)/international production networks (IPNs). The quantitative estimates suggest that the selective types utilized by Japan for most machinery products are much less trade-restrictive, while certain complicated types adopted by the United States for many machinery products are substantially trade-restrictive. Our detailed investigation revealed the two countries' contrasting strategies, namely, Japan appears to aggressively utilize FTAs with less restrictive PSRs to enhance GVCs/IPNs, while the United States tends to make PSRs more restrictive and complicated in detail as a sort of disguised protection tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the article "Heterogeneous Impacts of Free Trade Agreements: The Case of Japan" is presented.

What determines people's preferences regarding trade policy? Existing studies have assumed that people consider trade policy merely trade politics; accordingly, these studies have focused on economic factors, such as benefits to individual or national welfare; ideational factors, such as xenophobia; or domestic political factors. This paper reveals that the international political factor of national security influences ordinary people's preferences for trade policy. While several studies have addressed the effect of the national security factor, they did not persuasively reveal the causal mechanism of the relationship between the national security factor and people's trade preferences. The present study conducted a factorial survey experiment to investigate the causal effect and the causal mechanism of the security factor on people's preferences regarding free trade agreements (FTAs). The results of the experiment conducted in Japan reveal that ordinary people consider the national security factor along the so-called realism path in forming their opinions regarding FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on how technical barriers to trade (TBT) are addressed in recent EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). We analyze the pre- and post-EPA trade policies and the contested issues in Japan from the viewpoint of European businesses. An eclectic theoretical approach is adopted to study the economic, political and social aspects of trade barriers. Whereas formal trade barriers, such as tariffs and codified non-tariff barriers are easily discernible, the subtler informal trade barriers derive from social norms that guide administrative practices and are hard to measure, and largely neglected in recent research. Based on expert interviews, policy documents, and European business surveys, we observe that the enforcement of EPA in Japan lags behind concerning certain TBTs such as standards, approvals and testing. The findings suggest that informal trade barriers, often linked with investment barriers, have a bearing in the theorization on trade policies and free trade agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have investigated the impact of imports, especially those from China, on the domestic labor market. In this paper, we empirically examine the effects of not only imports from China but also those from regional trade agreement (RTA) partners on employment in Japan. To this end, we decomposed the total import penetration into the import penetration under the most favored nation (MFN) and RTA regimes. To address the endogeneity concern on our import penetration variables, we estimated our models by the instrumental variable method. As in previous studies in the literature, we found that the rise in import penetration from China significantly decreases employment in Japan. In contrast, import penetration under the RTA regime is found to have significantly positive effects on employment. The increase in imports under RTA regimes is not harmful to the domestic labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have flourished in East Asia since the late 1990s. Japan and Korea were at the forefront of this trend. Nevertheless, most policymakers' preferences orbited around region-oriented FTAs out of reluctance to make a sudden policy shift away from their conventional emphasis on World Trade Organization-based multilateral negotiations. The trend continued in Japan throughout the 2000s. In contrast, Korea took a sharp turn toward a cross-regional strategy in 2003. By the mid-2010s, this had created a significant gap in the two countries' overall FTA partner choices. What caused policymakers' ideas in the two countries to diverge from their initial focus on region-oriented FTAs? This paper focuses on the conditions that enabled policymakers' ideas to explain the divergence by developing the contextual‒dynamic framework of FTA policies. At the dynamic level, individuals are more likely to emerge with new ideas when their expertise comes from outside the decision-making body, accompanied by their social qualities and power. Contextual conditions should also be met: the trade policy environment should reciprocate agent-level qualities to create a supportive atmosphere for policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international economic order is undergoing significant change. Most recently, key countries have been seeking to increase their level of economic security, including through increased industrial subsidies. Regulating subsidies is controversial, but undisciplined subsidy payments could be harmful for the healthy functioning of markets and balanced development among nations. In this regard, the GATT-WTO has regulated subsidies, but it has not been fully functional in recent years, and reform efforts do not appear to be bearing fruit soon. Therefore, in parallel with WTO reform efforts, reliance on other approaches, such as discipline through free trade agreements (FTAs), should be considered. Disciplining subsidies through FTAs is inherently difficult, given the cross-border nature of subsidies on the one hand and the geographical limitations of the FTA's scope of application on the other. In recent years, however, such disciplines in FTAs have begun to appear, starting with EU FTAs. Thus, this article explores the possibilities and limitations of the discipline of subsidies through FTAs, using Japan's FTAs as a case study, to approach the path to international control of subsidies. Accordingly, this article first reviews the range of related issues and developments, including characteristics of subsidies, the rationale for subsidy discipline in trade agreements, recent challenges to multilateral subsidy discipline, the current status of subsidy discipline through FTAs, and the background of subsidy discipline in EU FTAs. The article then identifies the WTO-plus elements that are distinct to subsidy disciplines in EU FTAs and discusses their implications. Through these, it highlights the perspectives needed when considering subsidy discipline through FTAs, examines Japan's FTAs in light of these perspectives, and presents the findings and implications thereof. Considerations are given to Japan's FTA/trade policy as a background for its subsidy discipline through FTAs, the current status and characteristics of subsidy disciplines in Japan's FTAs, the Agreement Between the European Union and Japan for an Economic Partnership's (JPN-EU) subsidy-related provisions as drastic change, the effects on the Asia-Pacific region, and future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author in this article analyzes a paper which discussed the subject of trade liberalization over product categories in free trade agreements (FTA) particularly in Japan, China and Korea. He also cited empirical results from two indexes used by the author of the paper, namely the index of sensitivity (ISD) and the index of dispersion power (IDP). The author believes that the empirical results presented by the paper could be more supported with further discussion of the effects of these results and policy interpretations.

The pursuit of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) by numerous countries, aimed at promoting trade among member nations, is widely acknowledged. Nonetheless, policymakers often voice concerns regarding the potentially short-lived nature of PTAs' trade-promoting effects. In light of this concern, we present empirical evidence that substantiates the transient nature of the trade-enhancing impacts associated with PTAs. We identify the expanding economic influence of China in the global trade sphere as a primary driver for this trend. These findings are reinforced by a compelling illustration within the context of the PTAs involving Korea and Japan with Latin American countries. Our case study suggests that the attenuation of the export-promoting effects of Korea and Japan's PTAs with their Latin American counterparts can be attributed to the penetration of Chinese goods, the sustained reduction of Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariffs, and the proliferation of comprehensive PTAs within regional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a diversification explanation in order understand the development of PTAs in Southeast Asia. I argue that an important reason why ASEAN states participate in PTAs has been to diversify existing trade ties and to reduce overdependence on a narrow range of export markets. Southeast Asian countries have formed PTAs with markets with which they had weak or unexplored economic relations, as demonstrated by three case analyses: the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) and the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP). To maximise the economic gains and the diversification effects of PTA participation, ASEAN countries have pursued a strategy of strengthening economic unity while keeping external economic linkages as diversified as possible. Although East Asia, and especially China, was an important alternative market to reduce ASEAN's dependence on trade with America, ASEAN countries have also pursued PTAs with a number of other trading partners. This paper explains how PTAs have helped ASEAN states to develop more policy autonomy in their trading environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of overlapping free trade agreements (FTA) in recent years has led to pair-wise hub-and-spokes (HAS) throughout the world. Being avid subscribers to FTAs, many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the United States, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Australia, have become trade hubs to their partners who are in turn relegated to spoke status. In this paper, we question whether being a hub is welfare optimal for a small and open economy such as Singapore compared to membership in a single bilateral FTA or a multi-member free trade zone. Within this context, we use a computable general equilibrium model to examine the welfare implications of the triangular trade relationship of the United States, Singapore and Japan. This is facilitated by the Japan–Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement, the USA–Singapore Free Trade Agreement, and a hypothetical USA–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The analysis is extended to incorporate ‘super-hub’ effects, that is, the spoke countries could be trade hubs in other HAS systems. Our experiment reveals that hub status generates positive welfare gain and is the highest Singapore can get from the trade configurations considered. Meanwhile, Japan loses more than the USA when both are relegated to spoke status. These findings prove to be robust under different market structures and production technologies, deeper economic integration, ‘super-hub’ effects, as well as uncertainty in the key model parameters and the extent of trade liberalisation shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hypothesized in this paper that the way by which a ruling elite extracts its resources significantly influences the evolution of state-related institutions. Specifically, if the ruling elite must construct a penetrating set of institutions to extract revenue and in order to encourage payment of taxes must also provide services in return (reciprocity), then states are likely to have institutions conducive to economic growth. Institutions restraining arbitrary decision making are likely to evolve and are likely to be effective. The process of economic and political development in Japan in the prewar period is used to illustrate this process. Specifically, the evolution of limited parliamentary democracy during this time period was the result of the process by which the ruling elite sought to extract revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011 the European Union's free trade agreement with South Korea was considered its most ambitious agreement with any Asian economy. In 2019, however, this distinction was handed over to the EU's Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan. With Japan being a top-ten trading partner of the EU, the EPA is of economic and political importance in times of rising protectionism to support rule-based trading principles as well as international standards and sustainability goals. The paper reviews EU-Japan trade structures and the components of the EPA accompanied by a structural gravity estimation that builds on the experiences of the EU-South Korea agreement. Manufacturing industries benefit from reduced duties and application of the same international standards, facilitating approval. The greatest potential for cost reduction through tariff cuts remains in the strongly protected agri-food sector. Given the importance of non-tariff measures in negotiations of the EPA, we consider a counterfactual 'gold-standard' scenario, in which the regulatory gap for standard-like non-tariff measures between the EU and Japan closes. General equilibrium results suggest welfare effects for Japan of up to 0.05% of real GDP. Estimated GDP effects for the EU are in the magnitude of 0.01%, however, with marked differences across EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the role of domestic politics in facilitating or constraining a government's decision to participate in free trade agreements ( FTAs)? This paper seeks to answer this question by focusing on the domestic politics in Japan over the Trans- Pacific Partnership Agreement ( TPP). In particular, we ask why the opposition to the TPP encompasses a much broader segment of society than is predicted by trade theorems. We show that a broader protectionist coalition can emerge through persuasion and policy campaigns by the elites, in particular, powerful protectionist interests expending resources to persuade the uncertain public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of China in East Asia's recovery from the recent global financial and economic crisis highlights China's position as an engine of growth for this region. From the viewpoint of China, there are many potential gains from entering into free trade agreements (FTAs) with its neighbors, who collectively form a large and fast-growing market. In this paper, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the four main permutations of China's FTAs with East Asian major economies: China-ASEAN, China-Japan, China-Korea and ASEAN+3. We compare the effects of these FTAs on China's output and welfare. Our comparative analysis shows that China will gain from all three bilateral FTAs, while gaining the most from the ASEAN+3. Because forming a region-wide FTA, such as the ASEAN+3, is expected to be gradual and difficult, China should continue to engage in bilateral FTAs as a medium-term and alternative strategy. However, in the long term, China should pursue a region-wide FTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines issues that came before the Appellate Body in two disputes, US?Zeroing (EC)and the US?Zeroing (Japan). The core issue in both the disputes involves the US Department of Commerce's practice of zeroing. The scope of the claims in both cases was considerably broader than in the previous WTO disputes involving zeroing. The two arguments in support of the practice were that (a) the practice of zeroing has been a standard administrative practice for many years and (b) the Antidumping Agreement does not clearly prohibit it and hence deference must be given to national authorities. While, the Appellate Body was arguably correct in prohibiting the use of zeroing under the main methods of Article 2.4.2 AD Agreement as well as in various reviews, we consider that it overreached in considering zeroing to be in violation of Article 2.4 AD Agreement and possibly as inconsistent with Article 2.4.2, exceptional method. Finally, while the AB found zeroing in reviews violated Article 2.4.2 AD Agreement, we believe it would have been preferable for the AB to have limited its findings of inconsistency to Article 9.3 AD Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade East Asia has taken steps to increase regional integration. This paper examines the vogue for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) currently raging in China and Japan. After mapping the regional links that knit East Asia together during the 1990s and 2000s, the focus then shifts to the specific trade agreements that China and Japan have signed. Both countries exhibit a particular FTA “style;” Japan has adopted a more orthodox and comprehensive approach to its treaties, while China has shown greater flexibility and gradualism when dealing with FTA partners. It is still unclear whether these efforts will lead to a region-wide FTA, or a continued crisscrossing of bilateral arrangements. In either case, China's eagerness to adapt to partner country expectations likely gives it an edge in becoming the regional hub of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The few existing empirical studies of US-Japan trade agreements have relied primarily on descriptive statistics or univariate time series methods. We conduct a potentially more powerful test by evaluating agreements in the context of well-specified econometric models. Consistent with trade theory, import demand is modeled as a cointegrating relationship with income and relative price variables, where a trade agreement may cause a structural break in the cointegrating vector. Results are mixed, with evidence in several sectors of a possible change in import behavior following market-opening trade agreements, while in other cases no significant impact can be detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signing of an eight-year private trade agreement between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Japan on 16 February 1978, envisaging exchanges between 1978 and 1985 of goods worth US$10 billion each way, and the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese treaty of peace and friendship on 12 August 1978, laid the foundation for the PRC's Japan policy in the period after the fall of the Gang of Four.[1]
Under its present pragmatic leadership, the PRC appears to have been relying more and more heavily on the West and on Japan for capital and advanced technology for the realization of its 'four modernizations'. Japan's role in the PRC's modernization programme is certainly significant. After the first loan of 300 billion yen for 1979-83, the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone promised in his PRC visit in March 1984 a second loan of 470 billion yen ($2.08 billion) for 1984-90.[2] Similar perceptions of the Soviet threat have also contributed to the development of Sino-Japanese relations. It was reported that when Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visited Japan in November 1983, he compared the PRC and Japan to rival heroes in a Chinese classic tale and stated: 'When they fought, both sides were weakened. But when they were united, they were invincible.'[3] Invincibility may be an exaggeration, but the complementarily of the two economies and the vast potential of their cooperation will obviously affect the power balance of the Asia-Pacific region, and in the future perhaps that of the world. This article intends to trace the evolution of the PRC's Japan policy since the fall of the Gang of Four, analyse the achievements and problems of the bilateral relationship, and assess the implications for the Asia-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revision in Harmonized System (HS) and its impact of rules of origin (RoO) are matters of immense importance in international trade policy discourse due to its far reaching economic and trade implications. In this article, we analyse the impact of HS amendments on RoO, based on the change in tariff classification (CTC) by examining India's trade agreements with South Korea and Japan. Findings of the article show that the revision in HS impacts 42% of subheadings with CTC rules in case of India-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and 28% in case of India-Japan CEPA, thereby potentially affecting up to 48% and 16% share of their total trade, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide evidence from the electronics industry in East Asia supporting Kojima's (1973) hypothesis that FDI moves from capital-exporting countries' disadvantaged industries into host countries' advantaged industries. These results imply that FDI and trade are complementary, unlike in Mundell's (1957) model where they are substitutes. The results also indicate that exchange rate volatility deters trade, implying that reductions in the service link costs between production blocks can promote fragmentation. These findings imply that host countries in East Asia can receive technology transfers by lowering service link costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the UK‐Korea‐EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the UK‐Japan‐EU FTA, the gross domestic products of the UK, Korea, Japan, and the EU will increase. The UK's exports to Korea and Japan, and Korea's exports to the UK, Japan, and the EU will increase in some manufacturing sectors, particularly the automotive sector. Likewise, Japan's manufacturing exports to the UK and the EU will grow. However, UK and Japanese exports to the EU and Korea, respectively, will decline in this sector. There will be positive welfare effects on the UK, Korea, and Japan, but negative welfare effects on the EU, China, and the rest of the world (ROW). While UK imports from Korea and Japan and Korean imports from the UK and the EU will both increase and have mixed trade creation and diversion effects, UK imports from the EU will decrease in the manufacturing sectors. Korea's imports from Japan will decline, but Japan's imports from the UK, Korea, and the EU will increase due to trade creation and diversion effects. China's imports from Korea and Japan will decline, whereas China's imports from the UK and the EU will increase. EU imports from Korea and Japan will increase due to trade creation and diversion effects, but EU imports from the UK, China, and the ROW will decline in most manufacturing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Külgazdaság is the property of KOPINT Konjunktura Kutatasi Alapitvany and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that a China-Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement (CJK FTA) will have large benefits to the three Northeast Asian countries and significant implications for global multilateral trade. However, several hurdles seem to make an expeditious completion of a CJK FTA, or even bilateral FTAs between Japan and China or between Japan and Korea extremely difficult. Thus, a pragmatic approach would be to follow a dual-track approach in which China and Korea fast-track the completion of a bilateral FTA between them and the three countries continue their negotiations for a trilateral FTA on a steady track. Neither of these attempts should, however, deter these countries from joining the larger multilateral deals they are pursuing such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the trading volume with Latin America, Japan had signed trade agreements with major local economies. However there is a lack of studies regarding the trading flow between those two regions. This paper has the main objective to estimate a cointegration relation between Japan and the four biggest economies in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, by the most traditional Johansen procedure and the Lütkepohl's which allows to deal with structural breaks. Regarding Johansen main results, only the Argentinian trading flows are cointegrated, however by Lütkepohl approach, the Brazilian and the Chilean imports equation are also cointegrated. As the estimated structural break is related to main monetary events in Argentina and Brazil this fact increases the significance of those results and the importance to deal with these break for international trade econometric modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) and Japan began to search for the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) around 2010, and formal negotiations on the EU-Japan FTA (EJFTA) began in April 2013. The negotiations took a longer time than expected, reaching a signature on the agreement in July 2018. This article, by taking into account the character of the EJFTA as a representative mega-FTA, examines how two variables—the influence of interconnected FTA structure and political leaders' responses to anti-multilateralism—influenced the development process of the EJFTA. This article makes two main arguments. First, the presence and substance of other FTAs in which the EU and Japan had been involved brought about both positive and negative effects on the development of the EJFTA. Second, moves towards anti-multilateralism and market disintegration in 2016–17 urged Japanese and European leaders to pursue a swift conclusion of negotiations on the EJFTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effect of electoral systems on politicians' stances regarding free trade agreements. Utilizing the institutional features of the Japanese election system, we empirically investigate how electoral systems affect Diet members' responsiveness to agricultural organizations' protests against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Japan. This study shows that, even when controlling for differences in constituency size, Diet members elected in the proportional-representation constituency tend not to support the farm lobbies' protest against the TPP, regardless of the length of their remaining terms of office. Conversely, constituency size does not affect legislators' stances toward the TPP after controlling for the types of constituency systems in which they are involved. This study also finds that Diet members other than those elected from the proportional-representation constituency tend not to support the anti-TPP campaign when their next election is farther away. These results hold even when using another explained variable. The types of constituency systems and election proximity play key roles in shaping legislators' trade policy stances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Japan's trade policy on significant geo-economic developments by focusing on its engagement in three large free trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. Under the Abe administration, Japan has produced successful outcomes in mega-FTA strategy, concluding the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement in 2018. The making and diffusion of high-standard rules were given high priority in Japan's mega-FTA strategy, and Prime Minister Abe's political leadership in employing his political allies and executive aides and managing the opposition activities of veto players has enabled his administration to produce these successful outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrimp is the most valued fish traded internationally, the USA, EU, and Japan being the major countries importing shrimp from Asian countries and Ecuador. Import rejections due to quality issues lead to substantial economic loss. Year-on-year change fails to capture the nature of rejection. Unit rejection rate (URR), relative rejection rate (RRR), the trend in shrimp exports, and causes of rejection in the USA, EU, and Japan during 2002–2017 were analysed. India (151,000 t), Ecuador (95,457 t), and Vietnam (35,225 t) are the major exporter to the USA, EU, and Japan (2017). Transitional probability revealed India, China, and Thailand retained major part of their share in the USA and Japan markets. In EU market, India gained entire share of Indonesia and 93% of Bangladesh share and Vietnam retained major portion (97%) of its share. Number of consignments rejected was variable but declined of late. Indian shrimp exports were stable at US and EU markets with index of 6.90% and 7.48% for exports and 11.89% and 12.14% for rejections, respectively. URR of Indian shrimp exports declined and were 0.015, 0.03, and 0.02 for USA, EU, and Japan, with higher RRR for imports from Vietnam at EU and Japan. Box-Jenkins analysis revealed Indian shrimp rejections at the USA was higher than EU and Japan. Microbiological causes dominated the rejections by USA. Chemical was the major cause for rejections at EU and Japan. Results suggest significant improvement in the quality compliance of Indian shrimp exports. The study also used panel data analysis to assess the determinants of shrimp exports to the major importers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has historically sought to influence environmental policies of other countries through multilateral environmental agreements. Under its 7th Environmental Action Plan and Trade for All strategy it now seeks to extend its environmental policy projection through trade; its recent free trade agreements now contain chapters addressing environment and sustainable development. However, by adopting high environmental standards the EU can also advance its own economic interests suggesting an ambiguous motivation. The recent Korean, Japanese and Canadian FTAs and the Mercosur agreements are examined in order to place the extent of this environmental turn within the context of economic advantage. The finding is that while environmental protection provisions in these FTAs may have environmental benefits, they may also serve EU domestic economic interests. This motivation has implications for new FTA negotiations, such as those with New Zealand and Australia, and now the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega‐regional trade agreements (RTAs) are likely to overlap with other RTAs. When such overlaps occur, firms must choose the tariff rates from multiple RTAs. By employing data on Japan's imports by tariff schemes, we investigate how RTA tariff rates affect firms' decisions on tariff schemes when multiple RTAs exist. Our finding is that RTA utilization rates are higher when tariff rates for that RTA are lower (own effect) and tariff rates for alternative RTAs are higher (cross effect). We also found that the absolute magnitudes of own and cross effects are larger in bilateral and multilateral RTAs, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the cointegration of Japanese real imports of semiconductors in terms of real gross domestic expenditure and relative prices. Cointegration and adjustment vectors of a vector autoregression model; Impact of the Semiconductor Trade Agreement between Japan and the U.S.; Contributory factor to the rapid growth of semiconductor imports.

Trade policy, in particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), has been a centerpiece of the Abe administration's economic strategy. The TPP's contributions to Japan's growth strategy include: (i) creating trade and investment opportunities abroad for Japanese companies through ambitious liberalization targets; (ii) advancing domestic reforms - with the largest service and agricultural liberalization commitments to date; and (iii) increasing bargaining leverage in other trade negotiations. But the domestic reform goals of Abenomics in agriculture have come up short due to opposition from domestic lobbies. American trade politics - which culminated in the US withdrawal from the TPP - have upended the goals of trade policy under Abenomics. Japan's best option in this new environment is to deliver on high quality, multi-party trade agreements: concluding negotiations with Europe; scaling up the ambition of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; and salvaging a TPP 11. The merits of a bilateral free trade agreement with the USA will depend on how the Trump administration operationalizes its America First policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can a state with dysfunctional trade politics spur the negotiation of major free trade agreements (FTAs)? Using the case of Japan's participation in the trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), we develop an analytical framework on FTA diffusion that takes into account multidimensional (economic, legal and political) competitive pressures, and the ability of states to act as pivots in triggering FTA cascades. We disaggregate the makeup of a pivotal state into two main components – capability and credibility – and underscore Japan's significant latent capabilities, but also its serious credibility shortcomings. The TPP's boost to Japan's credibility raised the possibility of significant economic, legal and political externalities for specific countries which responded by accelerating FTA initiatives that had long stalled: the trilateral China–Japan–Korea FTA, a 16-state East Asian FTA and the Japan–European Union trade negotiations. This study extends the theoretical frontier in policy diffusion studies by clarifying the combination of factors that allows some states, but not others, to activate the externalities behind the dissemination of defensive FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]