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EU offers Japan free-trade pact after quake

26 March 2011 00:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. European Union leaders Friday offered quake-hit Japan a special pact granting preferential trade terms as it battles to recover from a natural disaster and nuclear emergency that has left more than 10,000 people dead, APA reports quoting AFP.
The EU "should offer the potential launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement" at a summit between the bloc and Japan in May, it said in a last-minute addition to summit conclusions.
The concession, more wide-reaching than a similar humanitarian-based trade deal offered to Pakistan after disastrous flooding last year, was offered "on the basis that Japan is willing to tackle inter alia the issue of non-tariff barriers and restrictions on public procurement."
The Pakistan concessions remain tied up amid tough negotiations involving rival exporters such as India at the World Trade Organization, who also want better access to Europe’s market of half a billion consumers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he "secured a specific reference" to the idea from partners round a summit table otherwise preoccupied with the Libya campaign and Portuguese debt woes.
"I spoke to the Japanese prime minister yesterday and I said we will do all we can to speed recovery from the earthquake," Cameron told a news conference in Brussels.
"Today Europe has made the same pledge.
"I believe one of our priorities in order to demonstrate good faith must be to invite Japan to enter a free-trade area with the EU."
Japan and India signed a free trade pact earlier this month.
Tokyo is seeking more such partnerships as it looks to catch up with export rival South Korea and after China overtook it as the world’s second-largest economy in 2010.
The EU is looking for ways to accelerate economic growth, with a debt crisis still hanging over the bloc.