Japanese government approves plan to sign revised FTA with ASEAN
The Japanese government passed a plan to sign a revised free trade agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a Cabinet meeting on February 26, according to Kyodo News.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono (Photo: AP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Japanesegovernment passed a plan to sign a revised free trade agreement (FTA) with theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a Cabinet meeting on February26, according to Kyodo News.
The Japanese news agency quoted Japanese ForeignMinister Taro Kono as saying that he hopes the revised FTA, which includesliberalisation of investment and service fields, will be a huge step towards enhancingthe economic partnership between Japan and ASEAN.
The country is expected to sign the agreement onFebruary 27 and seek approval from parliament this autumn, while ASEANcountries will start the signing procedure from March 2.
The original FTA between Japan and ASEAN wentinto effect in 2008 and was Japan’s first multilateral free trade deal, whichfocused on the trade of goods.
To further optimise benefits from this pact, thetwo sides started negotiations on investment and services in 2010 and concludedat the ministerial level in 2017.
ASEAN is the second biggest trade partner ofJapan in Asia after China.
According to statistics of the Japanesegovernment, the total import-export turnover of Japan with ASEAN exceeded 12trillion JPY (about 108 billion USD) in 2018.
Besides the FTA with ASEAN, Japan has separatebilateral free trade deals with seven ASEAN countries namely Brunei, Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA
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Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono (Photo: AP/VNA) 
