Minister Edano Attended 2012 APEC Ministerial Meeting-Agreed on Green Growth by Expanding Trade of Environmental Goods and Other Issues-

Yukio Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, participated in the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) held in Vladivostok, Russia, from September 5th to 6th. On this occasion, Minister Edano held bilateral meetings with Timothy Groser, Minister of Trade of New Zealand, Ed Fast, Minister for International Trade of Canada, Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, and Bruno Ferrari Garcia de Alba, Secretary of Economy of Mexico. Minister Edano also attended the opening ceremony of Mazda Sollers Manufacturing Rus with President Vladimir Putin and others.

1. APEC Ministerial Meeting

(1) Key priorities for APEC 2012

Russia hosted APEC for the first time under the chairmanship by Andrey Belousov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Ministers intensively discussed various topics of APEC 2012, such as trade and investment liberalization, regional economic integration, trade liberalization of environmental goods and promotion of innovation.

(2) Major achievements

(i) Trade liberalization of environmental goods: Ministers spent two days negotiating trade liberalization of environmental goods, which contributes to regional economic integration and green growth. As a result of intensive consultations, they recommended the APEC leaders to endorse a list of environmental goods consisting of 54 items.
(ii) Fostering innovation: To foster innovation, Minister Edano shared his points of view that free and open trade and investment is critical for confidence-building among innovative actors and for open innovation in this region. In addition, Minister Edano also underlined potential role of women, the young and the elderly.
(iii) Establishing reliable supply chains: In addition, Minister Edano underlined APEC economies should improve supply chain visibility so that supply chains would be efficient and reliable in the disaster-prone Asia-Pacific region. Other economies also approved this.

(3) Supporting a multilateral trade system

Minister Edano emphasized that APEC economies should continue refraining from protectionist measures by keeping commitments in the agreement at the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade at Kazan.* He also stressed that APEC economies should take leadership role in negotiation on expansion of the ITA. These proposals were supported by APEC ministers and reflected to the Joint Statement of the Ministerial Meetings.

* (i) Reaffirming the Honolulu Declaration to refrain from new trade restriction measures until the end of 2015 (standstill)
(ii) Rectifying protectionist measures that have already been introduced (rollback)
(iii) Voluntarily refraining from taking measures with a strong nature of protectionism even though they may be consistent with the WTO.

2. Bilateral Meetings

(1) Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

The two ministers exchanged their views on cooperation in automobile and energy industries in the Far East. Regarding vehicle recycling tax that Russia introduced in September 2012, Minister Edano stressed that the tax should be imposed in the manner that consistent with WTO rules. He also stressed importance of amending the Japan-Russia investment agreement for improving mutually-beneficial economic relations.

(2) Timothy Groser, Minister of Trade of New Zealand

The ministers confirmed that Japan and New Zealand would cooperatively lead various agendas in this Ministerial Meeting including APEC Environmental Goods List They also exchanged opinions concerning the current situation of TPP.

(3) Ed Fast, Minister for International Trade of Canada

The ministers exchanged opinions on TPP and bilateral economic relations, including the Japan-Canada EPA and LNG export from Canada to Japan. Canada expressed its willingness to cooperate as much as possible for LNG export to Japan, and Minister Edano welcomed this offer.

(4) Bruno Ferrari Garcia de Alba, Secretary of Economy of Mexico

The ministers exchanged opinions on bilateral economic relations, economic partnership, and other issues.

(5) Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia

The ministers exchanged opinions on bilateral economic relations, economic partnership and other issues.

3. Opening Ceremony of Mazda Sollers Manufacturing Rus

Minister Edano attended the opening ceremony of Mazda Sollers Manufacturing Rus, which was the first base for the Japanese automotive industry in the Far East. From the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov attended the ceremony together with Mr. Takashi Yamanouchi, President and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation and Mr. Vadim Shvetsov, CEO of Sollers. President Putin expressed his high expectations for the Japanese automotive industry.