Strategic Partnership Agreement Research Articles

New horizons in EU-Japan security cooperation.

Alongside the EU–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between the EU and Japan entered into force in 2019. Whereas the EPA enshrines the existing interconnectedness between the Japanese and European economies, the SPA remains more aspirational. With an emphasis on shared norms and values and recognising an increasingly hostile external environment, the EU and Japan are seeking to deepen and broaden their security cooperation. For the period 1990–2017, EU–Japan security cooperation is mapped for a broad range of security domains. During this period, cooperation has increased notably in domains such as economic security, cyber-security and civil protection. In other areas, such as military, regional, energy and human security as well as terrorism, the scope of cooperation lags behind. Looking forward, the SPA not only reflects a renewed interest and level of ambition in the EU and Japan but also provides them with a platform to extend security cooperation to address their global and regional challenges.

Climate Change and Environmental Issues in the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan

Climate Change and Environmental Issues in the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan

THE EU-JAPAN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (SPA) – REALLY MORE POLITICAL AND SECURITY COOPERATION ON THE GROUND?

In July 2018, Japan and the European Union adopted the bilateral Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA). The SPA is aimed at further institutionalizing EU-Japan cooperation in regional and international politics and security. Based on the political rhetoric accompanying the agreement’s adoption, one could be tempted to conclude that the SPA will be the long-awaited breakthrough of EU-Japan political and security cooperation in the years ahead. But it is not, at least not yet. In the agreement, the EU and Japan envision cooperation in more than 40 areas. You name it, it is all in the agreement: cooperation countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, crisis management, post-conflict reconstruction, collaboration to prevent the proliferation of conventional arms, including small arms and light weapons, joint counter-terrorism policies, joint efforts to reform the UN, development policies, disaster management, climate change and many, many other areas and issues made it onto that very long list of unresolved issues of international politics and security. The good news is that the SPA covers fewer issues and areas than the previous EU-Japan Action (2001-2011), which covered more than 100 areas the EU and Japan were at the time planning to cooperate on, and – with a few notable exceptions – did not. The not so good news is that the new SPA still covers more than 40 areas and there is unfortunately no information publicly available outlining which areas and/or issues have priority over others. Reality (most probably) is that when one does not prioritize anything, then not much will get done unless and until there is agreement between the EU and Japan on what needs to be done first, second and third.

Canada-EU relations in political sphere

The article considers the peculiarities of formation and development of relations between Canada and the European Union in political sphere. It points out that the common essence of approaches to modern international relations serves as a potential basis for building bilateral cooperation on the issues of establishing political cooperation. In the course of research on Canada’s foreign policy it was noted that there is a number of features that are due to both internal context and external factors. In particular, it refers the peculiar nature of Canadian statehood, the existence of two linguistic communities, geographical location, and immediate neighborhood with the United States. It emphasizes the similarity of Canada’s positions with the approaches of European countries to solving a number of problems of modern world development. The importance of maintaining the transatlantic connection is among the significant issues. At the same time, it should be taken into account that there are peculiarities of establishing and maintaining relations between Canada and the European Union. On the one hand these are the relations with a strong multinational association and on the other – with each individual member state. It is noted that, despite the long historical tradition in the relationship, the potential for cooperation between Canada and the EU is only partially used. It highlights the need for Canada to reach a new level in its relations with the European Union, provided that it maintains close relations with the United States of America. Areas of mutual interest, as well as problematic aspects of negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement between Canada and the European Union have been identified. Although Canada–EU relations are bilateral, they are evolving in a broader international context. It is analyzed that Canada can be a valuable partner for the European Union in the field of international relations. This country should strive to be involved in the preparation of important international decisions in order to build common positions and ensure a sufficient level of coordination between the parties.

Japan-EU relations after World War II and strategic partnership

Japan and the EU formally agreed on the outline of The Japan-EU Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on 7 July 2017 and finalized on 17 July 2018. Despite such major shifts in the relationship between Japan and Europe, it is unfortunately true that Japanese society does not have a high level of interest in establishing a cooperative relationship or negotiating agreements such as the SPA with the EU, in fields other than economics. However, this low level of interest does not mean that strengthening a political relationship with the EU is unimportant. Rather, confirming that Japan and the EU share the basic values promoted by the SPA is even more important now than it was in 2011, when both leaders decided to initiate SPA and EPA negotiations. The international order—based on values such as liberty, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, the market economy, and free trade—which has been built up by Western countries, including Japan, since the end of the Second World War, is being challenged not only by emerging countries such as China but also by the Trump Administration in the United States. Japan-Europe relations after World War II have historically been dominated by economic friction, especially in the 1960s–1980s. But the experiences involved in resolving the economic friction enabled the relations to evolve from economic interests to the other area. There was a qualitative transformation of the relationship between Japan and Europe in the 1990s. This paper assesses the importance of cooperation with the EU for Japan in the twenty-first century.

The Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan from a Legal Perspective

The Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan from a Legal Perspective

ITM Power, Sumitomo partner for large-scale electrolysers in Japan

UK-based ITM Power has announced a strategic partnership agreement with Sumitomo Corporation in Japan, for the development of multi-MW projects in Japan based exclusively on ITM Power's PEM electrolyser products.

Trade policy preference, childhood sporting experience, and informal school curriculum: An examination of views of the TPP from the viewpoint of behavioral economics

AbstractWe investigated how childhood education and experiences helped to form noncognitive skills and later, trade policy preferences. We used individual‐level data with approximately 10,000 observations collected in July 2016. Using the instrumental variables (IV) method, with sporting experience and informal education in the childhood as exogenous IV, we found that (1) sporting experiences and informal education lead people to have positive subjective views about the role of group work, competition, reciprocity, and generalized trust and (2) positive views about the role of group work, competition, reciprocity, and trust leads people to prefer the Trans‐Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP).

Soft power, strategic narratives, and state identity: Re-assessing India-Afghanistan relations post-2011

ABSTRACTIn 2011, India and Afghanistan signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement that delimited cooperation in economic, social, political, and cultural areas. It depicted the rise of Indian soft power influence. However, the extent to which India garners strategic influence in Afghanistan through soft power remains contentious. This article contends that India’s soft power effectiveness in Afghanistan post-2011 can be fully grasped only via the construction and reception of India’s regional power identity negotiated at the sites of: “civilization,” “democracy,” and “economic-military” enabling India to provide a regional leadership that can forward both India and Afghanistan’s mutual interests. Examining soft power via the constructivist-discursive framework of collective identity strategic narrative, this article compares India-Afghanistan relations in periods 2011–14 and 2014–17. The former formalized strategic partnership agreement and the latter marked continuation of the agreement albeit through domestic political transitions in both countries. This article demonstrates that the Indian soft power influence in Afghanistan between 2014 and 2017 has increased markedly.

Brexit and Financial Services: What Comes Next?

Like many areas concerning Brexit, accurately predicting the outcome of negotiations concerning the provision of financial services and future developments is problematic. The Brexit White Paper states In our new strategic partnership agreement we will be aiming for the freest possible trade in financial services between the UK and EU member 1 At present, financial service providers based within the single market benefit from passporting privileges. Passporting, formalised by the second banking directive of 1989, 2 allows institutions established in one member state to freely provide and access services in other member states, with further passports issued to EEA states. Compliance with a common minimum regulatory standard as a condition of continued single market membership facilitates trading through passporting.

Towards a Substantial EU-Japan Partnership

The EU and Japan have spent decades normalizing trade links and attempting broader cooperation. In July 2017, political leaders agreed in principle to an economic partnership agreement (EPA) and to a strategic partnership agreement (SPA) hoping to enhance collaboration on economic, political, security and other issues, all buttressed by fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The agreements will likely be finalized and ratified this decade, so a more substantial partnership between the EU and Japan may unroll in economic and security fields as both sides adjust and converge their economic models and security paradigms. Yet, a comprehensive partnership based on shared values would take much more time to develop and galvanize the peoples of both sides.

Partnerstwo strategiczne Gruzji ze Stanami Zjednoczonymi Ameryki w latach 1992–2009

W artykule przedstawiono relacje Gruzji ze Stanami Zjednoczonymi Ameryki w latach 1992–2009. Ramy czasowe nie zostały wybrane przypadkowo i odnoszą się do daty nawiązania relacji bilateralnych między państwami 23 kwietnia 1992 roku oraz podpisania umowy o partnerstwie strategicznym 9 stycznia 2009 roku. Zainteresowanie Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki Gruzją wynikało z polityki dywersyfikacji zasobów energetycznych Morza Kaspijskiego znajdujących się w granicach Azerbejdżanu. Gruzja w planach dywersyfikacyjnych miała stanowić terytorium tranzytowe dla ropy naftowej i gazu ziemnego do Europy Zachodniej. Jej pozycję wzmacniała chęć ominięcia terytorium Federacji Rosyjskiej, a kierunek ormiański był niemożliwy z powodu azersko-ormiańskiego konfliktu o Górski Karabach. Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki wspierały dążenia Gruzji do członkostwa w Sojuszu Północnoatlantyckim oraz Unii Europejskiej, przeznaczając znaczną pomoc finansową oraz wspierając ją w reformach administracyjnych, gospodarczych oraz samorządowych.

Оценка изменения уровня экономической безопасности Японии при реализации Соглашения о Транстихоокеанском Стратегическом Экономическом Сотрудничестве (экономическая кооперация и экономическое противоборство)

Оценка изменения уровня экономической безопасности Японии при реализации Соглашения о Транстихоокеанском Стратегическом Экономическом Сотрудничестве (экономическая кооперация и экономическое противоборство)

The Strategic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan: the pitfalls of path dependency?

This article examines the current attempt by the European Union and Japan to negotiate a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA). Sitting alongside negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), this SPA represents an attempt to reignite bilateral relations between these two global powerhouses. Still confined by the origins of their institutionalised partnership in 1991, this article argues that both sides find it hard to break away from earlier functional and normative assumptions about their relative significance and about each other, in order to forge a new meaningful, overarching partnership. It examines the development of Japan–EU relations building up to the preparations for this SPA, against the background of path-dependent processes of engagement. Path dependency in its various forms ‘views institutions as ‘carriers of history,’ which maintain existing behavioural norms and cultural patterns throughout time’. Despite some of the problems such claims elicit, as will be explored below, this article proposes that path dependency – and a particular focus on ‘imprinting’ – offers a useful starting point for explaining the apparent institutional inertia and incremental change that characterise much of this bilateral relationship today.

The opportunity to regulate domestic fishery subsidies through international agreements

Several studies have pointed out that inappropriate fisheries subsidies can have negative effects on marine wild-capture fisheries, mainly due to differences in municipal laws. For the sustainable development of marine wild fisheries, it is necessary to reach an agreement on the regulation of inappropriate fisheries subsidies. After lengthy negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Negotiating Group of Rules presented a draft text on fisheries subsidies in 2007; however, the WTO has yet to reach a final consensus. Recently, after the Bali Ministerial Conference, participants announced their consideration of setting up a legal framework to regulate fisheries subsidies by means of a regional and multilateral trade agreement. If this does occur, the greatly delayed provisions of the WTO Chair's Draft Text may be put into effect in the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement.

Vietnam in the TPP Negotiations and Challenges it May Face

It has been almost seven years since Vietnam first experienced its official WTO membership on 2007. At the time of accession, it was envisioned that Vietnam economy would develop rapidly, and the event was hailed as “a turning point” and even “a sacred moment.” Many people in Vietnam said that the country would be “taking off” and becoming “a new Asian tiger”. Then, most enterprises and the Vietnamese feel disappointed with the fact that economic growth has been much lower than expected since Vietnam joined the WTO. There are reasons for such disappointment. First, at that time Vietnamese enterprises did not know or well- prepare for the challenges that lied ahead. Second they were so optimistic about the benefits being received. The history seems to be repeated now when Vietnam are negotiating another important FTA-the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (hereinafter the TPP) – that is considered as an integration as both breadth and depth level of because it is the largest, most dynamic trade collaboration of 21 century. On the Vietnamese media, major benefits of TPP are analyzed and propagated to create public support in order to conclude the TPP as soon as possible. Even a popular economic research approves that Vietnam is the biggest beneficiary among the TPP countries. Unfortunately, like the WTO, the TPP is not a “delicious cake”, and of course, there is no free lunch for Vietnam. To that respect, the paper aims at researching on the major potential challenges of Vietnam when participation in the TPP so that the community, especially the Vietnamese enterprises, are fully aware of both speculative interest and cost in order to have solutions to minimize the challenges and maximize the opportunities. The paper aims at answering two crucial questions: What is the ambition level of the negotiations? Whether Vietnam is ready for such level of ambition on offers in the TPP and what are the main challenges Vietnam may have to face?To answer the questions, this research paper will be divided into two chapters as follows:Chapter I: “Vietnam’s participation in the TPP negotiations and speculative opportunities”. Serving the introductory purposes, this chapter provides readers with the fundamental knowledge on the TPP negotiations and its ambition level in general, and then Vietnam’s participation and the benefits it may receive in an ideal condition in particular. Chapter II: “Challenges Vietnam may face in the TPP”. This is the main part of the paper which introduces and analyzes the potential negative impacts and difficulties of the proposed regulation in the on-going negotiations for the most important sectors and issues in Vietnam. The chapter is presented with the proposed rules for a sector, then I will analyze the challenge caused by such regulation and finally the solution (if any) for such challenge. First the challenges for textile and apparel sector are analyzed, then for agriculture sector, intellectual propriety rights (IPRs), State-Owned Enterprise reform, legal reform, and labor chapter, respectively.

The Shanghai Free Trade Zone -- Motivations and Legal Impacts

The Shanghai Free Trade Zone was launched on September 29, 2013. In light of this development, this paper is aimed at discussing the internal and external motivations of the launch and analyzing the domestic and international legal impacts. The discussion will be divided into three sections. The first section introduces the background of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. In particular, this section analyzes basic legal documents such as: the Framework Plan, Appendix to Framework Plan and Negative List. The second section focuses on internal and external motivations. Internally, there are three types of predictions on the relationship between China’s launch of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and political reforms. Externally, there is an on-going evolutionary trade system beyond the WTO, which depends on negotiations of Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TIIP), Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). China has lagged behind in recent years. Currently, China is adopting new policies to gain leverages on such negotiations worldwide. Finally, the third section analyzes the domestic and international legal impacts of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Domestically, it has an impact on both legislative procedure and the distribution of central and local legislative powers. Moreover, it has influenced the judicial power and legal practitioners. Internationally, the comparison between Shanghai Free Trade Zone and WTO, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shenzhen Economic Special Economic Zone respectively indicates how this policy might influence China’s obligations under international and regional treaties.

International Trade Law and Information Policy: A Recent History

In September 2008, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the United States’ intention to join Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei, and Chile in what was then called the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, a preferential trade agreement. Since then, the agreement has grown in scope and ambition. The negotiations to create what is now known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have expanded to include seven other nations. The USTR wants the TPP to be “an ambitious, next-generation, Asia-Pacific trade agreement that reflects U.S. economic priorities and values.” According to the USTR's webpage dedicated to the agreement, the administration is “working in close partnership with Congress and with a wide range of stakeholders, in seeking to conclude a strong agreement that addresses the issues that U.S. businesses and workers are facing in the 21st century.”

Development of Farmer Support System on Dairy and Meat Industry of Goat Utilizing ICT

Recently, due to the rapid growth of population and food demand in the Asian region, animal feeding industry is more prosperous, so that animal food production is increasing remarkably in the region. That is, the livestock movement is getting more activated and expanding rapidly, accompanied by the enlarged globalization of economy and distribution in the Asian region. This movement of the livestock industry in the region will be expectedly accelerated by Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP). On the other hand, however, this rapidly accelerated activation and enlargement of livestock movement and transportation, contains an internal risk that the infectious diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease may break out and prevail widely in the region. In order to reduce such a risk of spreading of livestock epidemics, it is necessary to establish a global livestock information system with up-to-date technologies to achieve the food safety of developed and relieved livestock industry in the region. However, due to the budget problem for many animal farmers and the present high-priced information and communication devices, utilization movement of the modern gadget for the small-to-medium scale animal feeding management is substantially stagnant in this region. In this paper, we propose a brand new designed system with the method of ICT applications, devices and techniques to seek for the solution to this problem, concerned with the small-to-medium scale livestock feeders. Furthermore, we examine the relationships between Machine to Machine (M2M) system, database system, and Web system; those are fundamental keystones of this newly proposed system

Japan's Participation in TPP Negotiation: Prospect and Policy Implications for Korea

Since March 2010, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations have been taking place, where members have expanded into the 11 Asia-Pacific countries from the original Pacific 4 (P4: Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, and Brunei). The P4 has rooted in the P5, where the United States initiated the liberalization of trade and investment among only P5 countries (the United States, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Chile) to overcome the limits of APEC’s open regionalism in the late 1990s. However, the United States and Australia could not join the negotiations because of their respective domestic political problems. The current TPP negotiation is said to have been formally launched in March 2010 when the United States joined the P4 with Australia, Peru, and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Malaysia was approved to participate in the TPP negotiations since October 2010; Canada and Mexico joined in December 2012. The current 11 TPP negotiating countries aim to reach the framework agreement until the APEC summit that will be held in October 2013 in Bali, Indonesia, and the final agreement until the end of 2013. The TPP, as a part of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), has been known as an open and multilateral FTA that aims to be a comprehensive and a highly liberalized agree-ment among the 21 APEC countries.