18 October EU-Japan industrialists’ round table

Date: 24/10/1996

CHIEF executives from two dozen European and Japanese companies met in Tokyo for the third meeting of the EU-Japan industrialists' round table. Formed in 1995, the group aims to promote industrial dialogue between the world's two major economic powers. With members split into working groups, the gatherings concentrated on three themes: competitiveness and deregulation; EU-Japanese cooperation in third countries; and cooperation between the two sides towards creating the information society.

PARTICIPANTS agreed to work towards deregulation of the electricity sector and to create and support venture business in order to revitalise their economies. With consensus on the need to cooperate in Asian markets, the partners pledged to work to improve investment conditions on the continent, to step up corporate investment in the Asian market and to examine other means of cooperation in the area. The information society working group discussed ways of increasing the harmonisation of European and Japanese laws and of introducing high technology to a wider audience. Members also agreed that their companies should try to garner industry positions on the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), designed to eliminate tariffs on telecommunications products by the year 2000.

THE business leaders also sent a message to the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to be held in December in Singapore. They said that governments should commit themselves to using the WTO to settle their trade disputes and should avoid taking unilateral measures. They urged leaders to implement the trading agreements reached in the Uruguay Round and to conclude the ITA. With their sights set on greater monetary stability, they called for reinforced cooperation between the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

THE business executives and policy-makers set 17 October 1997 in Brussels as the date and venue for their next meeting.

VICOMTE Etienne Davignon, chairman of Société Générale de Belgique, led the European side, which included ABB, Afnor, Alcatel, Arbed, BASF, British Aerospace, BP, Daimler Benz, Lyonnaise des Eaux, Nokia, Olivetti, Pechiney, Philips Electronics, Pirelli, Renault and Volkswagen. The Japanese participants, led by NEC Corporation chairman Dr Tadahiro Sekimoto, included Chiyoda Corp, Fujitsu, Komatsu, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nippon Steel, Nissan Motors, Ricoh, Sony Corp and Sumitomo Chemical. Japanese government ministers were not present because of the country's impending general election. But policy-makers were represented at the meeting by Hisashi Hosokawa, vice minister of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and by Director-General Stefano Micossi of the Euro-pean Commission's DGIII, the Directorate-General for industry.