Japan and the European Union plan to step up joint efforts to help Afghanistan and combat piracy off Somalia and will start talks to improve their trade ties, their leaders said at a summit Wednesday.
Japan, EU to cooperate on Afghanistan,
"Japan and the union will work closer to achieve peace (in) crises and post-conflict management," he told a Tokyo press conference also attended by European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.
Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said after the annual meeting that "we have agreed to conduct concrete cooperation concerning peace building in Afghanistan and Somalia."
He also said both sides will set up a "high-level group" of experts to discuss economic ties for a period of six to 12 months.
Tokyo is eager to strike a free-trade pact of the kind the EU forged last year with Japan's high-tech export rival South Korea, but Brussels has complained of non-tariff trade barriers to Japan's market.
Van Rompuy earlier also called for closer cooperation on fighting climate change, poverty and terrorism, and promoting global economic stability, nuclear non-proliferation and human rights.
"To share the burden and to lead the way, we need to team up with each other," he said. "The EU and Japan, with their combined economic and political strengths, can help make a difference in an increasingly globalised world."
He highlighted international network security and the threat of attacks on "the free flow of goods, people and information. The networks are vulnerable, cyber-attacks are no fantasy, they can happen and do harm everyday."
"We must enhance our resilience against these. Both Japan and Europe are so deeply in global networks that we must do this together."
Van Rompuy also spoke about economic ties at the earlier briefing at the Japan Press Club, saying that "of course, an obvious way to intensify the trade between our two blocs would be a free-trade agreement."
But he said that "many of the so-called non-tariff barriers to trade remain in place, which hamper access to the Japanese market and cause hesitance from the EU side to go ahead."
"We could perhaps take some more time to first identify the objectives both parties want to reach. We are open to discussions," he said.
The EU has demanded Japan first do more to reduce non-tariff barriers, including in product safety and government procurement rules.
Toshiro Tanaka -- a professor of European politics at Keio University -- said that "despite the EU's rhetoric that the Japanese market is closed with non-tariff barriers, the EU is reluctant to sign a free-trade deal with Japan, whereas Japan, backed by its business community, craves a deal with the EU."
Tanaka said the free-trade deal signed between the EU and South Korea last October sparked Japanese interest in a similar agreement.
"Currently, the EU imposes 10 percent tariff duties on imports of vehicles and 14 percent on electronics, but South Korean companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor will be eventually exempt from those tariffs.
"That's significantly disadvantageous for Japanese manufacturers in selling goods in the European market," Tanaka told AFP.
The EU delegation next travels to China for a similar summit in Shanghai, where the World Expo kicks off on Saturday.
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