Seminar in TTC Osaka Area
Event name : EPA Seminar — Learn from preceding cases-
Date : January 28, 2011
Time : 9:30pm — 12:00pm
Venue : Osaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OCCI)Co-organizers: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Osaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Number of participants : about 300 people
Seminar Program:
Introduction: Japan’s EPA(Economic Partner Ship Agreement) policy by Mr. Tamaki Tsukada, Manager, EPA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1. Presentation Preceding Cases:
Mr. Shigehiro Kondo, President, Choya Umeshu Co., Ltd.
Mr. Katsuhiro Uwa, Head of Trade Group, JTEKT
Mr. Hideki Ijyuin, General Manager of Research Group, Industry Policy,
Business Planning Div., Toray Co., Ltd.
2. How to utilize EAP in Business
How to apply for Certificate of Origins (CO) for EPA. By Mr. Ryoji Asano, General Manager, Certification Center, OCCI
EPA and Business Strategy by Mr. Kazuhiro Shima, Plantec Consulting
Introduction
Japan has concluded Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with 11 countries mainly in ASEAN countries. Among Japan’s trade with those countries, 16.5% are used EPA in value. Now, Japan has finished negotiations with India and Peru, and has been negotiating with Australia/New Zealand, Gulf Cooperation Council (or GCC, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Omar). For Korea, negotiation process has been stopped since 2004. According to JETRO’s survey in 2009, use of EPA by Japanese companies is about 33.8% including those who have willingness to utilize EPA in the future. For export to Thai, 23.7% of them are utilizing JTEPA (Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement) and 12.7% are considering use of it. For import from Thai, 32.9% are actually using and 5.7% are considering to use it. Japanese companies can have more benefit utilizing more than one EPA, and they can establish supply chains in East Asia. If Korea’s EPA with EU and USA go into force, Japan’s industrial material export may be placed in an inferior position in trade. In 2010, Japanese government disclosed their policy to work on FTAAP (Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific), and other EPA negotiations. For TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), Japan has been collection information and 24 working groups have been set up to discuss about TPP.
1. Preceding cases of use of EPA
CHYOYA: Choya is a plum wine manufacture. Before start using EPA, Choya have carefully studied tariff and EPA for overseas market in Asian countries. They found use of EAP will lead to price down because of benefit from lower import tariff.
JTEKT: JTEKT is a manufacturing company with 11 domestic factory and 41 factories in 19 countries. They have carefully checked tariff to find how they can utilize EPA most to lower the overall cost. Since they have over 1000 items for export, initially they tried to use EPA on items with higher value rather than use EPA on all exporting items. They have been trying to expand their use of EPA for more items.
TORAY: Japanese textile industry is now relying on import mainly from China. For garment, about 94.7% are imported. Japanese textile industry expects ASEAN countries to be factory location outside of China (i.e. China plus one). Tore has invested in many countries including Thai, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Korea. Since Japan concluded EPA with Thai, Malaysia, Indonesia and ASEAN. Japan can use EPA both for import and export for those countries.
2. How to utilize EPA
OCCI: Mr. Asano presented general procedure of Certificate Origins (CO) issuance in Japan. PLANTEC CONSULTING: Plantec is a consulting firm to help companies’ business strategy by utilizing EPA. Since Japan has already concluded many EPAs, there is companies need consulting for best use of EPA to establish global supply chain. Once EPA(or FTA) goes into force, benefit company can enjoy become available instantly.
Reported by Yasuko Seta, Thai Trade Center, Osaka
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th