An Introduction to and Overview of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan

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Jane Lambert

On 23 Oct 2020, the Secretary of State for International Trade signed an Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership in Tokyo.  The body of the agreement is 406 pages long divided into 24 chapters together with 3 volumes of annexes which can be accessed from UK/Japan: Agreement for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership [CS Japan No.1/2020].

The structure of that agreement is very similar to the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement:

EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement	UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
Chapter 1    General provisions	Chapter 1   General provisions
Chapter 2    Trade in goods	Chapter 2 Trade In goods
Chapter 3    Rules of origin and origin procedures	Chapter 3 Rules of origin and origin procedures
Chapter 4    Customs matters and trade facilitation	Chapter 4 Customs matters and trade facilitation
Chapter 5    Trade remedies	Chapter 5 Trade remedies
Chapter 6    Sanitary and phytosanitary measures	Chapter 6 Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
Chapter 7    Technical barriers to trade	Chapter 7 Technical barriers to trade
Chapter 8    Trade in services, investment liberalisation and electronic commerce	Chapter 8 Trade in services, investment liberalisation and electronic commerce
Chapter 9    Capital movements, payments and transfers and temporary safeguard measures	Chapter 9 Capital movements, payments and transfers and temporary safeguard measures
Chapter 10  Government procurement	Chapter 10 Government procurement
Chapter 11  Competition policy	Chapter 11 Competition policy
Chapter 12  Subsidies	Chapter 12 Subsidies
Chapter 13  State-owned enterprises, enterprises granted special rights or privileges and designated monopolies	Chapter 13 State-owned enterprises, enterprises granted special rights or privileges and designated monopolies
Chapter 14  Intellectual property	Chapter 14 Intellectual property
Chapter 15  Corporate governance	Chapter 15 Corporate governance
Chapter 16  Trade and sustainable development	Chapter 16 Trade and sustainable development
Chapter 17  Transparency	Chapter 17 Transparency
Chapter 18  Good regulatory practices and regulatory cooperation	Chapter 18 Good regulatory practices and regulatory cooperation
Chapter 19  Cooperation in the field of agriculture	Chapter 19 Cooperation in the field of agriculture
Chapter 20  Small and medium-sized enterprises	Chapter 20 Small and medium-sized enterprises

Chapter 21  Dispute settlement	Chapter 21 Trade and women's economic empowerment
Chapter 22  Institutional provisions	Chapter 22 Dispute settlement
Chapter 23  Final provisions	Chapter 23 Institutional provisions
	Chapter 24 Final provisions

The only difference in structure appears to be the insertion of a chapter on  "Trade and women's economic empowerment" in the UK's agreement with Japan.  The only chapters of either agreement that I have read in full are Chapters 14 of the EU and British agreements which cover intellectual property.  I shall write a separate article on the IP provisions of the UK-Japan agreement shortly.   

According to the British government, the UK-Japan agreement is not an exact copy of the EU-Japan agreement,  There are said to be some provisions in the UK-Japan agreement that have been tailored to British needs.  These may have been identified in the Final Impact Assessment of the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and NorthernIreland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership and The UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Benefits for the UK.   For an independent view of the agreement from an international trade policy consultant and fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory, see Minako Morita-Jaeger  UK-Japan trade deal will provide political cover - but only a limited trade boost of 27 Oct 2020 on the politics.co.uk website.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of its contents should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Brexit Briefing September 2020

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Jane Lambert

The event for which September 2020 will be remembered was the introduction of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill    Why the Bill was needed at all or at any rate while negotiations on the new partnership with the European Union are at a critical stage is far from obvious.  As I said in The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill  19 Sept 2020 "my first impression on reading through this bill was that there was nothing in it that did not already fall within the scope of existing legislation except perhaps Part 5."

As even Nigel Farage could see, a stiff response from the European Commission was to be expected and perhaps even justified:

Forget Theresa May and Michael Howard - Johnson's conduct is now making even Nigel Farage seem sensible and reasonable https://t.co/llqrXJHVLi

— david allen green (@davidallengreen) October 1, 2020

If the UK is to leave the customs union and single market and the Republic of Ireland is not, there have to be customs controls at the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland unless it is placed somewhere else. The only other place they could be located is between the ports of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  That is what Mrs May said no British Prime Minister could ever do.

It seems unlikely that this difficulty was not foreseen by Mr Johnspn or members of his party when they voted for the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 which ratified the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland from the EuropeanUnion and the European AtomicEnergy Community.  The only explanation that occurs to me is that the Messrs. Johnson, Gove and Lord Frost hoped to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement in the new partnership talks.

Since art 50 (2) of the Treaty on European Union required the negotiators to take account of the framework for the UK's future relationship with the EU which was supposed to be expressed in the Political Declaration, the EU negotiators were mandated only to flesh out the details of that framework.  That is the substance of their draft treaty of 18 March 2020.  When Johnson, Gove, Frost and company refused to consider that draft the talks became deadlocked allegedly on state aids, fishing and dispute settlement.

If that surmise is right the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill could have been intended to jolt the EU into making concessions.  The threat is that if nothing is done the Irish government will be forced to police the border with Northern Ireland that could lead to political instability in the Republic as well as (possibly but from the Briitish point of view much more affordably) in Northern Ireland.   If that is the tactic it is not clear that it will work for the Commission announced at 10:00 this morning the first step in taking legal action against the UK.  We should know fairly quickly for both sides agree that the middle of October is the cut-off point for ratification of any new partnership agreement by the parties' legislatures before the end of the year,

Other developments in September have been the Agreement in Principle on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership with Japan 12 Sept 2020, exploratory talks with the governments of the parties to the Comprehensive and Progress Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and continuing talks with the US government on a possible trade deal.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the issues discussed should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.