Third Round of Negotiations on the Japan-Switzerland Economic Partnership Agreement (Summary)

October 19, 2007

The Third Round of Negotiations on the Japan-Switzerland Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was held from October 15 (Mon) to 19 (Fri) in Yokohama.
In this Round, Mr. Jun Yokota, Representative of the Government of Japan (Chief Negotiator), and other officials from relevant ministries for the Japanese side, and Mr. Luzius Wasescha, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the WTO, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Chief Negotiator) and other officials from relevant ministries for the Swiss side participated.
A summary of the discussion at the meetings is as follows;

(1) In addition to plenary meetings, expert-level meetings in such areas as trade in goods (market access, general rules on trade, and rules of origin), trade in services, investment and competition were held to further deepen the discussion.

(2) With respect to market access for trade in goods, both sides broadly discussed their interests in industrial and agricultural products and their domestic circumstances.

(3) With respect to many other areas, the discussion was based on proposed draft texts.

The Fourth Round of the Negotiations will be held in Switzerland in late November.

(END)