The EU and Japan on 4 April signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) intended to reduce the cost of certifying products for conformity with the two parties' technical regulations. The products covered are in four specific areas:

The agreement could cover trade worth an estimated Euro 21 358 million a year, and mean annual savings for exporters of up to Euro 400 million. The MRA will require formal ratification by the EU Council of Ministers and the Japanese Parliament, which is expected to be completed before the summer, allowing the MRA to come into force in the autumn. Welcoming the signature, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said "I'm glad we have finally managed to conclude negotiations on an agreement which will contribute significantly to facilitating trade between the EU and Japan".

The MRA, signed in Brussels by Director General for Trade Mogens Peter Carl and Japan's Ambassador to the EU, M. Takayuki Kimura, marks the conclusion of negotiations begun in 1995. The time taken to reach agreement reflects the complexity of both sides' certification systems in the areas covered by the Agreement relating to telecommunications terminal equipment and radio equipment, electrical products, Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for chemicals, and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for medicinal products.

The knowledge and understanding of respective systems built in the process should enable the EU and Japan to implement their MRA smoothly and promptly.

Mutual Recognition Agreements enable reciprocal recognition of results of conformity assessment. Through an MRA, an exporting party is given the authority to test and certify products against the regulatory requirements of the other party, on its own territory, before exporting. In cases where countries require mandatory third-party certification of specific products, each importing party agrees, under the terms of the MRA, to recognize the tests, certificates and approvals issued by agreed conformity assessment bodies of the exporting party. Thus, products can be exported and enter the other party's market without undergoing additional procedures.

The EU systematically negotiates MRAs with its major trading partners to facilitate trade in industrial products. The system works on the basis of building mutual confidence in certification systems on both sides. The MRA with Japan is an important new element in this policy. MRAs already exist with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.