PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/206
8 November 2002

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: JAPAN
Structural reforms needed to achieve sustainable recovery

A WTO report, along with the policy statement of the Government of Japan, will serve as a basis for the sixth Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Japan by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 6 and 8 November 2002.

A report on the trade policies and practices of Japan, published November 8 by the WTO Secretariat, says that there are tentative signs of moderate recovery in the Japanese economy but sustained recovery hinges on structural reforms, including Japan’s further liberalization of its trade and investment regime.

The report also says that since the last review in 2000 the economic situation has hardly improved against the background of a fragile banking system, high public debt approaching 140% of GDP, and the high level of unemployment. In this period, the main source of growth has been external demand.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 64KB)
  > Economic environment (12 pages, 374KB)
  > Trade policy regime: framework and objectives (13 pages, 144KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (28 pages, 259KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (17 pages, 116KB)
  > Appendix tables (19 pages, 228B)
    

• Government report (21 pages, 121KB)
    

• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    

• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments which may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Venezuela: 27, 29 Nov 2002
Hong Kong, China: 16, 18 Dec 2002