SeminarTuesday 2 July 2013
6:00pm – 7:30pm
Economic Integration with the Neighbours - a Good Thing?
Drinks reception: 7:30pm – 8:30pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle, London, NW1 4QP
Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Japan is seeking closer economic relations with its neighbours by signing up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The UK, by contrast, is heading in the opposite direction, with increasing talk of leaving the European Union (the EU). So who is right?
The EU was founded largely as a way of binding former enemies together through trading links. The same motivations may be a factor in Asia, which suffers a continued legacy of friction and disputed borders dating back at least to World War II. In that sense, is it job done for the EU? And what will the economic impact be if the UK leaves it? Conversely, what does Japan stand to gain from the TPP? And can Prime Minister Abe push a deal through against the opposition of powerful forces such as the agricultural lobby?
Presentation by Minister Naoki Ito
The video of this event can be viewed on YouTube in two parts: Part One Part Two
About the contributors
Naoki Ito
Naoki Ito is Minister (Economic), at the Embassy of Japan, London. He was appointed to this position in August 2011. This is his second posting to the UK; he was also based at the Embassy of Japan, London between 1987 and 1989. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) after studying Law at the University of Tokyo and International Law at the University of Cambridge. He has previously served at the Embassy of Japan in Myanmar as Counsellor (1999-2001) and has held the same position at the United Nations in New York (2001-2003). More recently, he held the positions of Director, North East Asia (Korean Peninsula) Division (2003-2006), Director of Aid Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2006-2008) and Political Minister at the Japanese Embassy in India (2008-2011).
The Rt Hon Mr Bill Cash
Bill Cash has been a Conservative Member of Parliament since 1984 and has represented the Stone constituency since 1997. He was born in London, grew up in Sheffield and read History at the University of Oxford. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1967, he practised constitutional and administrative law. In 1984, he was elected as MP for Stafford where he remained until he was elected to the newly created constituency of Stone in 1997, being re-elected in 2001 and 2005. He was Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs between 2001 and 2003. The leader of the Maastricht Rebellion during the 1990s, he was voted Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year for 1991. He is currently a member of the European Scrutiny Committee and Chairman and founder of the European Foundation think tank. In addition to constitutional and European affairs, he takes a strong interest in the developing world. He is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Sanitation and Water in the Third World, Malaysia, Kenya and Uganda, and Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee for Tanzania.
Ben Hall
Ben Hall is the Europe News Editor & Deputy World News Editor of the Financial Times (the FT). Until taking up this position in January 2011, he was Paris Correspondent covering politics, the economy and France’s role in the Eurozone crisis during most of Sarkozy’s presidency. After gaining his MPhil from Cambridge University in European history and political science, he was Research Director at the Centre for European Reform from 1996-2000, and started at the FT as a leader writer in 2001, mostly working on European political and macro-economic issues but also writing leaders on a vast range of subjects from Chinese political opposition to financial regulation. He became Deputy Comment Editor in 2002, and he was UK Political Correspondent from 2003 to 2007.