Key Points

- Japan announced that it will implement FTAs with partners who contribute to creating a global environment and that will eventually benefit Japan. The partner that well suits Japan’s purpose of FTA is ASEAN.
1) Unlike Korea and China, Japan concluded a FTA with ASEAN as a whole (AJCEP, ASEAN and Japan’s Comprehensive Economic Partnership) on top of concluding bilateral FTAs with individual ASEAN members (JAFTA, Japan-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement).

- For trade in goods, Japan agreed to a lower concession level for the AJCEP than the JAFTA.
1) There was a narrow range of openings, with many of the items of Japan’s partner being excluded. Such items that were excluded can be an effective measurement in assessing the actual level of opening of Japan’s agricultural and marine products.

- Japan’s approach of concluding both the AJCEP and the JAFTA, unlike that of Korea and China, raises the question of efficiency.
1) Even if the bilateral FTAs between Japan and individual ASEAN members have high level of openings, there is a possibility that the trade effects may be distorted since the concession levels are different from that of the AJCEP.
2) It is difficult to state that Japan has a high level of opening when comparing the level of concession towards ASEAN6 from the AJCEP with that from the ASEAN-Korea FTA.

- It is highly likely that Japan will apply the concession method towards ASEAN on agricultural and marine products to the Korea-Japan FTA if the FTA goes under negotiation.

- The Korean government should understand the significant role of ASEAN in an East Asian economic cooperation perspective and make further efforts to build a strong and distinctive cooperative relationship with ASEAN.



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