Today the House of Lords International Agreements Sub-Committee
have published a new report, Scrutiny of international
agreements: UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement, providing a first analysis of the recently agreed
UK-Japan trade agreement (CEPA).
In its report, the Committee finds that the
CEPA “is a respectable continuity-plus agreement” that “provides
valuable continuity for businessesconsumers and
other stakeholders”, but that the CEPA falls short of the
Government’s presentation of the
deal.
The committee also point out that certain parts
of the UK-Japan agreement seem to be only “a potential
victory for the Government”, such as the possible new
protections for UK Geographical Indications (GIs), as the added
value is unclear, and the Japanese approval process may take
longer than anticipated.
Whist retaining tariff reductions at the same
pace as in the EU-Japan agreement ensures that UK exporters
aren’t at a disadvantage versus EU exporters, the CEPA does put
UK exporters behind in terms of access to tariff rate quotas, as
the UK will only have second-order access to the preferential
rate after EU exporters. This could compromise a small but
important proportion of agri-food exports.
The Committee finds CEPA contains
welcome provisions on rules of origin and cumulation,
which will help to protect existing supply chains and
manufacturing. But to be most valuable to key areas, such as car
manufacturing, the UK and EU also need to agree similar
provisions, and this has yet to happen.
The Committee also finds it a missed
opportunity not using the talks to demonstrate the UK’s
international leadership in the areas of women’s economic
empowerment on sustainable development. The Committee
feel this might have been addressed further if there was more
time for negotiation.
Other points made in the Committee report
include:
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The Government intends to use this deal as a
stepping-stone to CPTPP accession, which would bring more
certainty UK exporters seeking to access preferential tariff
rates through TRQs. The Committee is not clear that CPTPP
accession negotiations will succeed, or resolve the issues
outstanding with CEPA
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That new provisions supporting digital trade
are welcome, but leave unanswered some stakeholders’ questions
about whether or how they will affect the protection of
personal data
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The Committee feel the Government’s
presentation of the deal has been misjudged by suggesting that
CEPA achieves far more than it does, and as a result has risked
undermining the importance of its actual
successes
Commenting on the report, Committee
Chair
said:
“CEPA is a respectable continuity-plus deal
that provides many UK businesses exporting to Japan with the
certainty they desperately need and avoids reverting to WTO terms
for trade. But in some areas, it will require the UK to agree
further provisions with the EU for it to be a
success.
“We welcome parts of agreement that have
gone further than the EU-Japan deal, such as on digital and data.
However, because of the required pace of negotiations, it has not
been possible to achieve some of the objectives of key
stakeholders, such as the creative industries, which might have
required primary legislation on either side. In seeking to
present a rollover agreement as entirely fresh and new, the
Government has raised unrealistic hopes in these areas, but we
hope the Government can be more ambitious in this area in future
talks.
“In trying to promote CEPA as a new deal,
the Government has oversold many of its provisions. We hope that
that does not undermine the important continuity for businesses
and consumers that has actually been
achieved.”
Notes to editors:
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To see the full report, please click on the
follow link: Scrutiny of
international agreements: UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement
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For more information on the International
Agreements Sub-Committee, please visit their website:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/448/eu-international-agreements-subcommittee/