BUCHAREST, Jan. 16 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Tuesday ended his bustling Eastern Europe visit, five days in six countries, with an unpleasant incident in his last leg in Romania, where the sudden resignation of the country's prime minister left Abe in a disturbed agenda.
Instead of meeting with his Romanian counterpart, Abe joined his wife's agenda to visit the Village Museum.
In such an unexpected way, the Japanese prime minister had to end his six-country European tour, through which he sought to lobby for more support to Japan's free trade pact with European Union (EU).
But compared with the core aim of Abe's tight-scheduled Eastern Europe visit, how to end it seems not so important.
Seeking the rapid ratification of a trade accord with EU is the final target of Abe's visit.
The trade agreement between Japan and the EU, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was reached last December during the Estonian presidency of the Council of the EU. Yet, the ratification process in Europe could face risks, as it was revealed that the recently closed trade deal with Canada has been almost blocked by political leaders of Wallonia, a region of Belgium.
To avoid the worst situation, Abe started his European tour with Estonia, focusing intensely on assuring support for the most-needed free trade agreement with EU.
And the trade deal is indeed a most-needed one for Japan and for Abe, whose economic policies just focus on boosting the economic growth of the country, including a stubborn devaluation of its currency in order to help exporters.
The Japanese government estimated that the EPA trade deal will add 45 billion U.S. dollars to Japan's economy every year and will create 292,000 jobs.
To win the hearts of the Eastern European countries, Abe has promised big, from the strategic partnerships with Romania and three Baltic countries to more investment to the region.
In Bulgaria, the current presidency of the European Council, Abe agreed with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to work together to speed up the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement.
In Romania, the presidency of the European Council in the first half of 2019, the final and most sensible moment for the implementation of EPA trading bloc, Abe discussed the EPA developments with the Romanian president and managed to win his full support. The Japanese prime minister said that central axes of its visit in Romania was boosting trade and investments, and especially mentioned that Japan had lifted the visas for Romanian citizens.
Accompanied Abe was also a delegation of 30 Japanese business leaders, who have separate agenda of identifying investment and trade opportunities.
But the only concrete deal announced so far was an agreement to build a desulphurization unit for the Nikola Tesla power plant in Serbia.
The outcome is not so unexpected considering Japan's current economic bonds with these European countries.
Among them, Romania is a relatively strong trade partner of Japan in the region, with bilateral trade reaching 680 million euros in 2017, exporting mainly wood furniture, clothes, and importing cars and electrical equipment. But Japan is only the 25th foreign investor in Romania with some 180 million euros (216 million U.S. dollars) invested mainly in automobile-related industries.
Japanese trade with Baltics countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is modest, while the economic ties with Bulgaria and Serbia are even weak.
But, it became apparent that Japan has started to seek some changes.
The EU-Japan EPA is one of the largest and most comprehensive economic agreements that either the EU or Japan has concluded so far.
It will remove the vast majority of the 1 billion euros of duties paid annually by EU companies exporting to Japan, as well as a number of long-standing regulatory barriers.
It will also open up the Japanese market of 127 million consumers to key EU agricultural exports and will increase EU export opportunities in a range of other sectors.
But the agreement needs the approval of the European Parliament and EU member states and expected to enter into force before the end of the current mandate of the European Commission in 2019.
体坛英语资讯:Ballesteros offers thanks for his cancer recovery
体坛英语资讯:Federer loses to Djokovic in Miami ATP tennis semi
体坛英语资讯:S. Williams upset in opening round of Andalucia Tennis Championships
体坛英语资讯:Kevin Garnett to miss final two regular season games
体坛英语资讯:Briton McIlroy leads teenage parade
体坛英语资讯:Robinho cleared of rape charges
体坛英语资讯:Chinese player tries luck in Argentine soccer club
体坛英语资讯:Czech soccer head coach Rada dismissed
体坛英语资讯:Robles plans 110m hurdles record at Czech Golden Spike again
体坛英语资讯:China wins four titles in Diving World Series
体坛英语资讯:Jiao Liuyang sweeps 3 butterfly titles with 2 Asian records
体坛英语资讯:Robinho forgives Pele
体坛英语资讯:Bayern crush Frankfurt, Wolfsburg remain top
体坛英语资讯:Venus upset, Peng out of Family Circle
体坛英语资讯:Hamburg suffers setback in title competition
体坛英语资讯:Real Madrid beats Valladolid 2-0
体坛英语资讯:Venezuelan Valero contends title with Colombian Pitalua
体坛英语资讯:American cyclist Zwizanskiy wins Tour of Uruguay
体坛英语资讯:Nadal, Murray make fourth round at Miami tennis
体坛英语资讯:Los Angeles Angles pitcher killed in car crash
体坛英语资讯:Chinese Guo wins womens keirin in track cycling worlds
体坛英语资讯:Aguero commits future to Atletico Madrid
体坛英语资讯:Higuain believes Barcelona can win treble
体坛英语资讯:Jordon heads Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of fame, 2009
体坛英语资讯:Australias rugby player Mackay succumbs in hospital
体坛英语资讯:Haan resigns as Albania coach
体坛英语资讯:Cannavaro plays waiting game with Real Madrid
体坛英语资讯:S Africas Wolmarans reaches quarterfinals at ATP Soweto Open
体坛英语资讯:Brazil, Britain to exchange experience in football
体坛英语资讯:Zheng focuses on results, not rankings