UK Trade Negotiations: Agreement with Japan - Which? written evidence

Summary

1. Which? welcomes this opportunity to submit evidence on the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (CEPA) which was signed on 23rd October.
2. Many aspects of this Agreement that impact on consumers are in line with the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement that the UK has been party to – for example, in relation to tariff reductions on consumer goods.
3. There are, however, some key differences that could potentially undermine consumer protection or the UK’s ability to regulate to improve consumer protection in the future. One important area where the Agreement differs is in relation to digital trade and specifically, the implications for the protection of people’s personal data.
4. The Agreement suggests that a lower level of protection could be accepted than is currently required under the existing General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and raises questions over what this will mean in terms of a data adequacy decision with the EU.
5. The Agreement also allows for a review that could potentially see investor-to-state dispute settlement procedures included. The inclusion of such a provision would open the door to an untransparent mechanism that would circumvent the UK’s well established legal processes. This type of dispute settlement procedure could constrain the UK’s ability to enforce regulation or to regulate further on issues such as public health, environment, food safety and consumer rights. This is not in consumers’ interests and should have no place in the new trade deals that the UK is negotiating.
6. More generally, we support the greater emphasis on consumer protection within the Competition Chapter but think that the UK should have taken the opportunity to go further. A specific Consumer Chapter would reinforce the importance of protecting consumers’ interests throughout the Agreement.