EU to Japan: Go Back to Start, Do Not Pass Go

[Russell]

EU demands human rights clause linked to economic partnership agreement with Japan

The European Union is insisting on a human rights clause linked to a proposed economic partnership agreement (EPA) with Japan, it was learned Monday.

In negotiations between the EU and Japan on a strategic partnership agreement (SPA), which are held in parallel with their EPA talks, the EU is calling for a clause that allows Brussels to suspend the EPA if Japan engages in human rights violations, informed sources said.

While the EU says the clause in the SPA also allows Japan to do the same if the EU violates human rights, Tokyo is strongly opposed to the demand, the sources said.

It is the EU’s basic strategy to call for democratization in developing or emerging countries in exchange for economic benefits. Japan is angry at the EU for trying to apply the policy for developing countries to a member of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

In its free trade agreement talks with the United States, the EU does not call for the conclusion of a political pact like the SPA.

An EU official emphasizes that the human rights clause is unlikely to be invoked against Japan, but the EU issues a statement condemning capital punishment is cruel and inhuman every time when Japan executes a death-row inmate. The clause may exert tacit pressure on Japan from the EU, which aims for abolition of the death penalty.

The EU apparently believes that having Japan accept the human rights clause would make it easier to push for the clause in its future free trade agreement talks with China.

More

Kind of scratching my head over this one. Must give a lot of teeth sucking in Kasumigaseki...

[Coligny]

It is the EU’s basic strategy to call for democratization in developing or emerging countries in exchange for economic benefits. Japan is angry at the EU for trying to apply the policy for developing countries to a member of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

Oh... snap !

[Yokohammer]

The gap between how much of the world sees Japan and how Japan sees itself.

This could get interesting.

[Coligny]

More like... brutal...

[J.A.F.O]

pretty sure this is gonna come down to who needs what more.

[matsuki]

Japan is angry at the EU for trying to apply the policy for developing countries to a member of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

Cause being a major industrial nation means you don't need any human rights???

[Wage Slave]

Japan is angry at the EU for trying to apply the policy for developing countries to a member of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

Cause being a major industrial nation means you don't need any human rights???

If you are a well off asian industrial nation then you claim that you have developed a system of human rights based on Asian Values. Singapore often argues this - Asian Values define the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a different way. To a westerner it just looks like old fashioned authoritarianism/paternalism/patronage/family dynasties but that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Asian Values. Exactly what Asian Values are and where they came from is less clear. They just are.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Japan is angry at the EU for trying to apply the policy for developing countries to a member of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

Cause being a major industrial nation means you don't need any human rights???

Of course not. Just ask all the black non-violent drug offenders who are engaged in slave labor in the for-profit US prison system.

[matsuki]

but theyz criminals!!! =O