A free trade agreement between Japan and the EU is expected before the summer break, according to Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.

“We are making good progress with Japan, in fact I’m meeting the Minister for Agriculture to negotiate what will be the final outcome of the agricultural part of this particular free trade agreement with Japan next week,” Hogan told the Irish Farmers Journal in Brussels yesterday.

“We are ambitious on agriculture with Japan, especially in beef and dairy and I’m hoping that we can actually reach a political agreement before the summer break.”

In terms of legislation on unfair trading practices, the Commissioner said: “I would expect that we would have proposals to put to the core legislators probably by the end of this year or early next year.”

Commissioner Hogan outlined the next steps towards implementing the recommendations presented in November by the Agricultural Markets Task Force in the European Parliament yesterday. In its November report, the task force – made up of 12 EU experts – recommended far-reaching legislation by the EU in relation to unfair trading practices in the supply chain after the farm gate, with the meat, dairy, fruit and vegetable sectors being mentioned in particular.

It has recommended banning practices such as payment delays of over 30 days, unilateral and backdated changes to contracts as well as last-minute order cancellations for perishable goods.

Commissioner Hogan also said the EU is engaging again in trade negotiations with the group of South American countries that make up the Mercosur block because Mercosur have “moderated their expectations and lowered their ambition in terms of what they want to achieve.”

The Commissioner expects that between now and the end of the year, there will be “an effort” to have a lower ambition deal resolved. He noted, however, that this will have to meet EU requirements in relation to food standards, something he notes there are “problems” with in Brazil.