Jean Asselborn Highlights Agriculture Opportunities of EU-Japan Trade Deal at Chamber Seminar

On Friday, Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn participated in a seminar on the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Japan.

Organised by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Chamber of Commerce, the seminar, in which the Director General of Trade at the European Commission Jean-Luc Demarty also took part, centred around the theme "The EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement - Seizing the opportunities of the biggest trade zone ever".

Faced with a crowd of international experts and local entrepreneurs, Minister Asselborn stressed that the seminar formed part of a desire of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to better communicate on the commercial policy of the European Union to ensure that Luxembourg companies can take full advantage of the opportunities offered by it.

The head of Luxembourg's diplomacy has thus launched a call to take advantage of the framework set up by the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, signed on 17 July 2018. In this context, Minister Asselborn particularly emphasised "the opportunities offered in the agri-food sector. with wine and chocolates in the first place, but also the automotive sector and the pharmaceutical and health industry. Points of complementarity between our economies just waiting to be further explored".

Recalling that the objective of the Free Trade Agreement with Japan is to eliminate the difficulties that Luxembourg operators have encountered in the past, particularly as regards administrative formalities, rules of origin or compliance with standards, Minister Asselborn concluded that he was confident of the proper implementation of the agreement.