The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) concluded between the EU and Japan on 17 July 2018 will enter into force on 1 February 2019, which is surprisingly ahead of the planned date.
Based on the agreement, it will be possible to import to the EU the majority of products originated in Japan (almost 96% of the customs tariff sub-items) without any customs duties already from 1 February 2019. Similarly, it will be possible to import as many as 86% of the kinds of products originated in the EU to Japan without any customs duties. It is expected that the agreement will bring to the EU importers savings on customs costs namely in the area of import of chemical or electric products as well as cars and their parts.
The EPA is a comprehensive trade agreement. In addition to the free trading of goods, the agreement also focuses on the harmonisation of standards such as certification for personal vehicles and agricultural products, liberalisation and simplification of mutual trading with services, and enhancing investment opportunities between the EU and Japan by enabling mutual access to public contracts, protection of intellectual property rights, or the issue of medium sized enterprises.
The free trading of goods will be based on the preferential origin of goods, as is the case with other similar agreements. In this area, the agreement with Japan has numerous specifics related to both the evidencing of the preferential origin of goods and the wording of the rules of origin as such. Given those specific features we recommend that you pay appropriate attention to the given issue to ensure you can exploit the benefits arising from the agreement properly and in a timely manner. Incorrect application of the preferential origin may result in difficulties for EU exporters and subsequently, their Japanese customers. Analogically, an incorrect application of rules on the side of your Japanese supplier may have an adverse impact on your company importing the given goods to the EU.
Should you have any doubts in this respect, we recommend that you also focus on the tariff classification of goods as the assessment of the preferential origin of goods is mainly derived therefrom.
Should you need any clarification or assistance in this area we will be pleased to help you.
The article is part of dReport – January 2019, Tax news; Grants and investment Incentives.
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