BRUSSELS, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union (EU) on Thursday approved a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate a free trade agreement with Japan.
It also authorized the opening of negotiations with Japan on a framework agreement. The two agreements will be negotiated in parallel and will create a strengthened overall framework for the EU's relations with Japan, said an EU statement.
Japan is the EU's seventh-largest trading partner while the EU is Japan's third-largest trading partner, with 3.6 percent and 11 percent respectively of each other's trade in goods in 2011.
According to the statement, the negotiating directives foresee a free trade agreement that would provide for the progressive and reciprocal liberalization of trade in goods, services and investment, as well as rules on trade-related issues and the elimination of non-tariff barriers.
The negotiating directives for a framework agreement cover political, global and sectoral cooperation in a comprehensive manner, said the statement.
The Council's decision to launch the negotiations follows a "scoping" exercise that was conducted jointly by the Commission, the European External Action Service and the Japanese authorities, between May 2011 and May 2012, in order to define the potential scope and level of ambition of an agreement.
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