UK and Japanese unions call for EU trade deal that protects investment and jobs

9 Jun 2020 11:50 AM

As UK-Japan trade talks commence today (Tuesday), the leader of Japan’s trade union federation has joined forces with the British TUC to warn that Japanese investment in the UK is at risk unless the government negotiates a deal with the EU that allows barrier- and tariff-free trade.

• To ensure Japanese companies continue to invest, UK must negotiate barrier- and tariff-free trade with EU, says joint statement.
• With tens of thousands already facing unemployment, “government must not make things worse”, says TUC chief

EU deal

The TUC and JTUC-Rengo – union federations which together represent over 11 million workers – agree that the UK government’s priority should be negotiating a good trade deal with the EU.

The joint statement observes that the UK’s access to EU markets has been a major driver of Japanese investment in the UK, which supports thousands of good, unionised jobs, particularly in manufacturing, research and service sectors.

To ensure Japanese companies continue to invest, the union federations are calling on the UK government to negotiate a deal with the EU that allows continued trade without barriers or tariffs.

Japan deal

The statement also outlines a series of key requirements for any Japan-UK trade deal, including:

• Enforceable commitments to protect workers’ rights.
• Exclusion of all public services, including health, transport and education.
• Exclusion of all kinds of special courts which allow foreign investors to sue governments for actions that threaten their profits, such as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) or the Investment Court System (ICS).
• Protection for the right of both governments to use public procurement to support economic development, improve working conditions and pursue social and environmental objectives.

To ensure that these requirements are met and that the deal prioritises the interests of working people, the TUC and JTUC-RENGO are calling on both governments to engage with unions in trade negotiations.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:  

“The UK economy and hundreds of thousands of jobs are already under pressure because of Covid-19 – the government must not make things worse by botching our future trading relationships.

“Nissan and other Japanese businesses have been clear that their current UK operations could become unsustainable if the UK fails to negotiate a good deal with the EU. The loss of those good, unionised jobs would be a devastating blow to communities like Sunderland.

“Ministers must get serious about delivering a deal with the EU that supports jobs, workers’ rights and the economy, and take no deal firmly off the table.”

“A decent deal with the EU that secures high standards on workers’ rights and good jobs is an essential foundation for new trading relationships further overseas.”

Click here for the full press release