The rules of origin in the EU–Japan relations from the 1980s to the EPA and BREXIT

Abstract

The recent proliferation of free-trade agreements drew the attention of the general public to their socio-economic effects on the local community. A common misunderstanding among the general public and firms is that, when an FTA is signed by their domestic government with a partner, the goods produced by their domestic firms will benefit automatically from preferential access to the partner’s market. However, this is not the case. This is where the rules of origin come into play. After reviewing the concept of the rules of origin, we will investigate them in the context of the EU–Japan relations, drawing on three cases: (i) the decision of Japanese firms to invest in Europe in the 1980s, (ii) the rules of origin in the EU–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, and (iii) how the rules of origin between the UK and the EU following BREXIT could affect Japanese investment in Europe.