madam president in december last year i visited japan and one of the concerns that was raised repeatedly by the japanese officials was the slow progress in trade relations between the european union and japan
we all know that unlike some other eu partners in the far east we share common values of democracy human rights and the liberal market economy with japan making her a more natural partner for the european union
at the nineteenth eu-japan summit in april last year it was agreed to establish a joint high-level group in order to analyse the progress in eu-japan relations so far and draw up suggestions for streamlining our current activities
the importance of continuing to work on non-tariff issues was also stressed in the context of the joint high-level group and i hope that these agreements can be put into practice as soon as possible
i would like to speak in favour of timely and concrete steps to alleviate non-tariff barriers in order to liberalise eu-japan trade relations
both markets would benefit greatly from upgrading trade relations between the eu and japan especially keeping in mind innovation and technologies
i would also welcome further cooperation on matters relating to cyber security
i hope that we can improve trade relations with japan and i look forward to further progress in these relations
