Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere told Japanese officials Thursday to increase efforts to ease non-tariff barriers to boost trade with the European Union, a news report said, according to dpa. "As far as barriers, especially the non-tariff barriers are concerned, in fact Europe is becoming wary, a little bit impatient," Vanackere said at a business seminar hosted by the Belgian Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Kyodo News reported. Non-tariff barriers, which include anti-dumping measures and duties to neutralize the effect of subsidies, are trade barriers that restrict imports without levying duty on them. Vanackere is on a four-day visit to Japan with Prime Minister Yves Leterme, who met with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama Wednesday. Hatoyama told Leterme that Japan wanted to take the "first step forward" to forge a Japan-EU economic partnership agreement at a regular consultative meeting at the end of this month, Kyodo said. "We really think there is some work to be done. If the tariffs are lifted not only imports but also exports will be able to evolve. Trade will not be influenced in a negative way," Vanackere said. The Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, citing a study by Copenhagen Economics, said EU exports to Japan could rise by 23 per cent, or 14 billion euros (18.6 billion dollars), if tariffs were abolished. EU exports could increase by almost 50 per cent, or 29 billion euros, if the cost of non-tariff measures in Japan "were reduced to the fullest possible extent," the report added Vanackere said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada Wednesday he was glad Japan was willing to give the issue "drastic and dramatic reconsideration."
