4 February 2022: UK-Japan CEPA Committee on Regulatory Cooperation – joint minutes
Updated 3 May 2024
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Joint Minutes of the First Meeting of the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation under the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Video Conference, 4 February, 2022
The first meeting of the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation under the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“the Agreement”) (“the Committee”) took place on 4 February 2022 via video-conference.
Japan’s participants from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as well as the UK’s participants from the Department for International Trade (DIT), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and British Embassy in Tokyo had a fruitful exchange of views on matters related to Chapter 18 of the Agreement (Good Regulatory Practices and Regulatory Cooperation).
Both sides confirmed they would apply the Rules of Procedure (RoP) for the Joint Committee mutatis mutandis to the Committee, once adopted by the Joint Committee under the Agreement.
Both sides exchanged introductory views on regulatory cooperation including expectations on the scope and remit of the Committee under Chapter 18 of the Agreement. Both sides confirmed they would continue to enhance and promote good regulatory practices and cooperation between the two countries in accordance with the provisions of Section A of Article 18 of the Agreement. Japan acknowledged that this Committee could be a forum for exchange of information on trade related regulatory activities from other specialised committees. The UK side suggested possible areas of future discussion and cooperation could include exploring regulatory activities in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and drone technologies. The Japanese side noted that it would be meaningful to enrich discussion and cooperation under the Committee and noted that deliberate consideration, taking into account the relevant provisions of the Agreement, should be given when assessing the possibility of adding topics as Committee agenda items.
The Japanese side presented an overview of their regulatory practices along with the relevant articles of Chapter 18 of the Agreement, summarising them into 3 categories: regulatory reform, disclosure of information, and evaluation of regulatory policy. The UK side presented existing regulatory processes undertaken by the UK Government, highlighting how the UK fulfils its obligations under the Agreement. Both sides reached an understanding on the basic framework of the regulatory practices which are implemented in line with the articles of Chapter 18 of the Agreement.
Both sides agreed the frequency of future committee meetings to be once a year and reaffirmed that the contact points for this committee would be MOFA of Japan and DIT of the UK respectively.
The UK side proposed that the UK will host the next committee meeting in approximately one year if possible, while its modality and format would be discussed and decided flexibly considering COVID-19 developments.