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47 Hitotsubashi J.L. & Pol. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/hbijllw47 and id is 1 raw text is: 







Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 47 (2019), pp.1-15. C Hitotsubashi University


  THE   ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT AND THE STRATEGIC
    PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION
                 AND JAPAN FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE



                               YUMJKO NAKANISHI*

     Content
     I. Introduction
     II. Competence
     III. Content and the EU's Values
     IV. Implementation of the EPA and the SPA
     V. Concluding Remarks




                                   I.  Introduction

     The European Union  (EU) and Japan signed the Economic  Partnership Agreement (EPA)
and the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) on 17 July 2018. The EPA is composed of 23
chapters, covering investment liberalisation (Chapter 8), competition policy (Chapter 11), and
small and medium-sized  enterprises (SMEs) (Chapter 20), which are not subjects covered by
the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The chapter on SMEs  in the EPA is based on the impact
assessments by the Commission.1 Chapter 14 covers the protection of intellectual property rules
including geographical indications (GI). During the negotiations with the EU, Japan enforced
new  legislation on it.2 The EPA has about 560 pages not including annexes, and the SPA is
composed  of 50 articles, in about 50 pages. These agreements are economically and legally
important.
     The agreements  date back to 28  May  2011,  about two  months  after the Great East
Earthquake. On  that day, the 20th EU-Japan Summit  was  held in Brussel. The Joint Press
Statement indicated that Summit leaders agreed to start the process for parallel negotiations for
a deep  and comprehensive  Free  Trade Agreement/Economic   Partnership Agreement  and a
binding agreement, covering political, global and other sectoral cooperation in a comprehensive
manner.3 Parallel negotiations were requested by the EU, as part of its external action based on
Article 21 (1) TEU after the Treaty of Lisbon.
    After a joint press statement, the European Commission started a scoping process to check

  * Professor of EU Law, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan.
E-Mail: yumiko.nakanishi@r.hit-u.ac.jp
  ' COM (2017) 491, p.7.
  2 As for Japanese GI protection system, see http://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/intel/giact/index.html (last accessed on
24 December 2018).
  s 20th EU-Japan Summit, Brussels, 28 May 2011, Joint Press Statement, see, https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/
eu/jointl105.html (last accessed on 17 December 2018).

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