Trade ministers from Pacific Rim economies on Sunday trumpeted the "significant progress" made toward attaining self-imposed goals to free up regional trade, while embracing the need to make concrete efforts with a view to creating a region-wide free trade zone.
"We hope to compile in the summit new policy goals that look at the future of the Asia-Pacific by accelerating talks on concrete efforts in three areas - economic integration, growth strategy and human security," said Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima.
But going into details of APEC's future course, such as on whether to set a time frame for realizing regional economic integration, is likely to expose differences within the forum known for its diversity, thus making it difficult for Japan to swiftly come up with a consensus.
Naoshima said that the participants at the same time cited the need for more efforts to be made in various areas ranging from tariff reduction to domestic regulatory reforms. The Japanese Foreign Ministry says that the average applied tariff rate among APEC member economies was reduced to 6.6 percent in 2008, compared with 16.9 percent in 1989 when the forum was launched. It is also lower than the global average of 10.4 percent in 2008.
Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States are subject to the progress assessment this year, along with other economies that have volunteered for early assessment -- Chile, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Taiwan. To deepen economic integration, the member economies will continue to explore "possible pathways" to a proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, or FTAAP, and the ministers agreed on the need to produce "concrete outcomes" by November in areas such as investment, and environmental goods and services, according to the chair's statement issued after the meeting.
With regard to the proposed new policy goals for APEC, dubbed the Yokohama goals after the city where APEC leaders will gather in November, Japan is seeking the inclusion of APEC's growth strategy, a future vision of regional economic integration, and a cooperative response to potential obstacles to trade such as infectious diseases.
Approaches to the creation of an FTAAP is also disparate, with such countries as China asserting that it is better for the potential free-trade zone to start with smaller frameworks such as the so-called "ASEAN plus three," which groups Japan, China, South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Source: Mainichi Japan, June 7, 2010
The number of Japanese workers aged 15 to 24 has dropped by a whopping two million in the past 10 years, leaving the ratio of their participation in the labor force at less than 40% for the first time. The number of workers 15-24 declined by 300,000 to 5.15 million last fiscal year, pushing the labor participation ratio down to 39.6%, the lowest level since such data became available in 1968.
A dwindling young population and an increase in the number of people continuing on with their education after middle school were the main factors behind the decline.
The average unemployment rate for young people younger than 25 exceeded 9% in fiscal 2009. Revisions to the law governing temporary workers, which are now being discussed in the Diet, could lead to an even tougher environment for young job seekers in Japan. "It is important that we review our existing practices and make the employment system flexible," says Hisashi Yamada, chief economist at the Japan Research Institute.
"It is counterproductive to strengthen regulations on temporary jobs."
Source: The Nikkei June 4, 2010
Naoto Kan, who was voted in as leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the country's new prime minister, said Friday he will stick to most of the policies pursued so far by the DPJ-led government, including the formation of an East Asian community.
He said he will continue to work on four key policies hammered out by his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama -- creating an East Asian community as a regional forum modeled on the European Union, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, decentralizing Japan's administrative power and enhancing public services.
Source: Mainichi Japan, June 5, 2010
Japanese Internet firms have started to make major moves into the rapidly expanding Chinese online retail market, teaming up with Chinese companies to lure customers. The total number of users had reached 384 million, figures from the China Internet Network Information Center show.
On Tuesday Yahoo Japan joined forces with China's Taobao online marketplace, which is part of the Alibaba Group. Taobao, which accounts for about 80 percent of China's online sales, will list about 10 million products from Japan on a dedicated site targeting Chinese consumers. Meanwhile, some 50 million Chinese products put out by Taobao will be listed in the China Mall recently set up by Yahoo Japan, with automatic Japanese translations of listings in Chinese.
China Mall plans to limit participating businesses as part of its efforts to ensure that products are delivered and forged goods are not sold -- a move that takes into consideration Japanese consumers' sense of uneasiness when shopping online. Direct transactions through the online shopping business will allow customers to buy products more cheaply. For example, a cashmere wool scarf on China Mall, including postage, is reportedly about 40 percent of the regular price in Japan.
In a news conference Tuesday, Yahoo Japan Chairman Masayoshi Son said that cooperation between Yahoo Japan and Taobao would create the world's biggest Internet shopping business -- surpassing eBay.
The Internet shopping market in China last year totaled 248.3 billion yuan (about 3.4 trillion yen). It is expected that this figure will quadruple in 2013. However the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan and other bodies have fielded complaints from Japanese customers about products not arriving and companies refusing to allow products to be returned. As such, safe and secure transactions are essential in establishing an Internet shopping business between Japan and China.
Source: Mainichi Japan, June 6, 2010
The number of mobile phone subscribers in India totaled 612.2 million at the end of April, up 100 million in the last five months, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The driving forces behind this remarkable growth are robust consumer spending and intensifying price competition that is helping carriers win new subscribers, mainly in rural areas.
The number of mobile phone subscribers in China stood at 786.5 million at the end of April, a net increase of 39.11 million over four months. During the same period, India's net increase was 76.07 million, 90% faster than in China. The net rise in India totaled 16.9 million in April alone.
Source: The Nikkei June 1, 2010
The average price of a calf rose in May by 6.5% from January and 9.9% from a year earlier amid short supplies because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Miyazaki Prefecture. The price of a calf averaged 390,027 yen in May, up 35,037 yen on the year, according to Agriculture & Livestock Industries Corp. Only 9,644 calves were traded, a decline of about 70% on the year, as many auctions were canceled or postponed.
Meanwhile, beef prices continued to decline. The wholesale price of A3-grade Japanese beef on the Tokyo market declined 8.8% on the year to 1,405 yen per kilogram in the fourth week of May. The average retail price of domestic beef for the same week was 674 yen per 100 grams, down 4% on the year, according to data released Monday by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. To make matters worse, livestock producers are facing swelling feed costs due to the cancellation or delay of auctions. Source: The Nikkei June 1, 2010
The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th