Switzerland, Vietnam FTAs almost ready
01-OCT-2008 Intellasia | Kyodo News
Oct 1, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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Japan has struck basic deals with Vietnam and Switzerland to conclude bilateral free-trade agreements, government officials said Monday.
After more than a year of negotiations, Japan has found common ground on most issues regarding how to liberalise trade with the two nations, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said.
After the accord with Vietnam comes into effect, about 92% of bilateral trade in value will be duty-free in 10 years, the officials said.
With Switzerland, tariffs on about 99% of the total value of bilateral trade will be eliminated in 10 years, they said.
The two agreements will come into effect as early as next year, the officials said.
Switzerland would be the first industrialised country to conclude a free-trade accord with Japan, which has so far signed so-called economic partnership agreements with nine economies, but they include Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Chile.
Against the backdrop of the stalemate in the ongoing free-trade talks under the World Trade Organisation, Japan has accelerated efforts to sign bilateral accords in recent years, especially with other Asian countries. Japan launched negotiations with Vietnam in January 2007 and with Switzerland in May 2007.
In the course of the negotiations, Japan mainly called on the other two countries to scrap or cut import tariffs on industrial goods, including automobiles and high-tech products.
The value of Japan-Vietnam trade totalled US$12.26 billion in 2007, of which exports from Japan to the fast-growing country accounted for US$6.12 billion, up 17.4% from the previous year, according to the officials.
Vietnam was calling for duty-free market access to clothing, seafood and farm products, while Switzerland was urging Japan to liberalise imports of such products as cheese and wine, according to the officials.
Japan and Switzerland still need to make some adjustments on how to treat Swiss cheese and other dairy imports to Japan, but the two countries have already agreed that Japan's current tariffs on most other Swiss food items will be either abolished or reduced in the near future, a trade ministry official said
Japan's exports to Switzerland amounted to Japanese yen 355 billion in 2007, while Swiss exports to Japan stood at about Japanese yen 613 billion, with wristwatches accounting for nearly one-third of the total.
The economic partnership pacts will cover cooperation in investment and services, in addition to trade in goods.
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