CIAA (the Confederation of food and drink industries of the EU) represents the food and drink industries of the EU – the largest manufacturing sector in the EU in terms of turnover and employment. Our members are national federations, EU sector associations and large food and drink companies, speaking for both small and medium sized enterprises and large companies.

The CIAA welcomes the commitments made at the EU-Japan summit on 28 May 2011. The two sides have agreed to undertake a scoping exercise with immediate effect and a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is now a clear objective for bilateral relations between the EU and Japan.

For EU’s food and drink industries, a comprehensive FTA is the optimal solution because it would grant better access for European food and drink products to the Japanese market: Unlike other industries, tariffs and quantitative restrictions are still the main obstacles for exports to Japan. To increase the market share, it is therefore necessary to eliminate non-tariff barriers, quantitative restrictions and customs duties.

Japan is the fourth most important export destination for EU food and drink products. In 2010, the export value amounted to €3.5 billion, which is 8% of the total EU exports to Japan, all sectors included. Moreover, Japanese consumers are becoming increasingly open to non-traditional foods and the market for European food is growing.

As a result, the CIAA looks forward to the official opening of the negotiations and, to this end, calls on the Commission to conduct the scoping discussion and seek a mandate to negotiation without delay.

• Click here to download this position