Annual meeting 2001

3rd BRT Annual Meeting, Brussels, 09 & 10 July 2001:

"PARTNERSHIP FOR NEW GROWTH"

The 3rd annual meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table took place on 9 & 10 July 2001 in Brussels and was co-chaired by Messrs. Étienne Davignon and Tadahiro Sekimoto.

A short highlights video (© European Communities, 2001) containing footage from the "Participation of Romano Prodi and Erkki Liikanen to the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table" can be found on the Commission website.

The meeting began with the Joint Session with the EU and Japanese Authorities which featured speeches by, and discussions with:

• Commissioner Erkki Liikanen
• Keiji Furuya, Senior Vice-Minister, Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry
• Toshio Kojima, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs
• Mogens Peter Carl, Director-General of DG Trade
• Kaoru Kanazawa, Vice-Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts & Telecommunications
• Robert Verrue, Director-General of DG Information Society

That was followed by a Presentation of Japanese economy and business and then reports by the BRT's various working parties. The BRT then had 'free discussion' of two topics - Biotechnology and Corporate Management, before endorsing the set of 2001 recommendations and the press release.

During the formal dinner, Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, gave a keynote address entitled The EU and Japan working together.

The second day began with an internal working session and was followed by a briefing to the Authorities, during which Messrs Liikanen, Furuya & Kojima responded. The meeting concluded with a press conference.

Various documents are available from the meeting:

• Meeting agenda
• Press Release
• Summary of Recommendations
• Recommendations - WP 1 - Trade and Investment
  • EU-side submission
  • Japan-side submission
• Recommendations - WP 2 - Accounting and Tax Issues
• Recommendations - WP 3 - Standards
• Recommendations - WP 4 - Mutual Recognition Agreement
• Recommendations - WP 6 - World Trade Organization

Other documents relating to the work of the BRT in 2001:

• The 2002 Progress Reports from the European Commission and the Government of Japan, prepared in response to the BRT's 2001 Recommendations
• The 2001 annual meeting was previewed in a 6 July press release entitled the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table meeting in Brussels, issued by the European Commission. French and German versions of the press release also exist.

The BRT and the EU-Japan Action Plan

08/12/2001 - The 10th EU-Japan Summit took place in Brussels on 8 December 2001. The EU-side was led by Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt (for the European Council Presidency) and by European Commission President Romano Prodi. The Japan-side was led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

The Summit announced An Action Plan for EU-Japan Cooperation to last 10 years, which mentioned the BRT in three places:

• In the section devoted to "STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMIC AND TRADE PARTNERSHIP UTILISING THE DYNAMISM OF GLOBALISATION FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL":

We, two of the largest economies in the world, commit ourselves to advance the global economy. We will therefore develop a deeper and wider economic and trade partnership between ourselves, with a firm belief in the multilateral trading system, in a way which promotes economic stability worldwide, and ensures that all countries benefit from this process.
We want particularly to facilitate the two-way flow of trade and investment, so that our bilateral economic relationship can realise its full potential - in the interests of all, consumers, producers, and society at large. To this end, we intend to:

- create an open environment for trade and investment, through working on a forward-looking agenda, taking into account the recommendations made by the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table;

- ...

• In the section devoted to "Encouraging our Bilateral Trade and Investment partnership":

Other actions to be pursued
- Support and encouragement for, notably:

- private sector exchanges, in particular the activities of the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table, whose recommendations provide useful input to the overall trade and investment partnership;
- contacts between consumer groups, including at an appropriate stage further editions of the EU-Japan Consumer Dialogue; and
- exchanges between small-and medium-sized entreprises, including through the "Gateway to Japan" programme and the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Co-operation's human resources training programme.

- Co-operation to enhance effective bidding by European companies in Japan and by Japanese companies in the EU, taking account of information and recommendations from the EU and Japan business communities and notably the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table.

Photograph from the 2001 BRT

A photograph from the 2001 BRT annual meeting can be found at the bottom of this page. Click on it to see an enlarged version.