Characteristics of EU Free Trade Agreements in a Legal Context: A Japanese Perspective

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has concluded; it is currently negotiating Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with third countries and has been negotiating an FTA with Japan since 2013. These FTAs have certain specific characteristics (related to competences, values and objectives) emerging from the EU’s legal order. Bilateral and multilateral FTA negotiations are occurring all over the world and these negotiations and transactions are all influencing one another. Global multilateral negotiations form a soft coherence of the agreement texts, which in turn leads to a kind of approximation of the text of FTAs worldwide. The EU is an important trade partner that accounts for 10% of Japanese total import and export values (the third largest value after China and USA). In the negotiations regarding the EPA between the EU and Japan the specific characteristics of the EU can be permeated. The content of negotiations are influenced by other FTAs of the EU.