BRUSSELS: European Union leaders on Friday offered quake-hit Japan a special pact granting preferential trade terms as it battles to recover from a natural disaster and nuclear emergency that has left more than 10,000 people dead.
The EU "should offer the potential launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement" at a summit between the bloc and Japan in May, it said in a last-minute addition to summit conclusions.
The concession, more wide-reaching than a similar humanitarian-based trade deal offered to Pakistan after disastrous flooding last year, was offered "on the basis that Japan is willing to tackle inter alia the issue of non-tariff barriers and restrictions on public procurement."
The Pakistan concessions remain tied up amid tough negotiations involving rival exporters such as India at the World Trade Organization, who also want better access to Europe's market of half a billion consumers.
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