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

Source Independent  Licence Standard YouTube Licence

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.