The non-tariff barriers of the EU–Japan EPA

Abstract

One of the main goals of the negotiations for the EU - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was the abolishment of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) between the two regions. These efforts were pushed by businesses as in recent years NTBs often impose higher burdens on international trade than more traditional tariff measures. Therefore this chapter explores which NTBs contributed the highest costs to trade for European and Japanese businesses prior to the EU - Japan EPA. For many years, businesses have raised their concerns about the most costly NTBs through several influential platforms such as the EU - Japan Business Round Table. These costly NTBs are all collected to give an overview of where European and Japanese businesses find issues entering the other market. Next, the chapter analyses the text of the agreement to give an overview of what exactly has been achieved in terms of NTB liberalization. Comparing this to the overview of most burdensome NTBs, conclusions can be made about whether these NTBs have been addressed in the EPA and whether businesses can expect improvements in market access as a result of the agreement. This kind of qualitative analysis of NTBs can prove important when decisions need to be made about the quantitative reduction of NTB costs in economic analyses of the EPA.