EU, US and Japan recommence trilateral cooperation on global trade

Yesterday, Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative and Hagiuda Koichi, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry announced in a statement that they have agreed to renew their trilateral partnership to address the global challenges posed by non-market policies and practices of third countries. They agreed to restart work to tackle practices that lead to overcapacity, create unfair competitive conditions and negative spill overs in international trade. This statement sends a positive sign and the trilateral cooperation will serve as an important instrument to ensure a global level playing field. There will be a trilateral ministerial meeting in Geneva during Word Trade Organisation’s 12^th Ministerial Conference at the end of this month to give directions on the next steps. This renewed cooperation follows on from the statement by the EU, US and Japan from January 2020, in which they announced their agreement to strengthen existing rules on industrial subsidies and condemned forced technology transfer practices.