A Study On The Formation Of Treaty Of Commerce,Establishment And Navigation Between The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland And Japan,1945-1973

Commercial problems were the most critical factors which affected Anglo-Japanese relation in the post-war period.The signature of Treaty of Commerce,Establishment and Navigation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan can be regarded as the milestone in the history of post-war Anglo-Japanese relations.As a result,the United Kingdom and Japan established an equal relationship.From this perspective,it is extremely essential to study the origin,process and the impact of the commercial treaty between Britain and Japan.After the World War II,the United Kingdom not only had refused to give most-favoured-nation treatment towards Japan,but also enforced discriminatory import restrictions against Japanese products.In September,1952,Japan applied for the membership of the G.A.T.T.,which was strongly opposed by the U.K..In the end,the United Kingdom had no choice but to claim that H.M.government would invoke Article XXXV of the G.A.T.T.against Japan.By invoking this article,Britain denied her G.A.T.T.relationship with Japan,evading the obligation of G.A.T.T.to provide Japan with the MFN treatment.However,British government would like to negotiate a commercial treaty with Japan to solve the MFN problem.This could be regarded as the origin of Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty negotiation.The Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty negotiation can be divided into three phases.The first one was from the mid of 1956 to the end of 1959.During this period,both sides exchanged views on goals,requests and the main articles of the treaty.The second phase was from the end of 1959 to the summer of 1961.There were two turning points during this critical period of the commercial treaty negotiation.One was the Japanese government's determination to implement trade liberalisation policy in the end of 1959,the other one was the compromise which was about the safeguards offered by the Japanese Foreign Minister,Osaka in the mid of 1960.The last phase was from the summer of 1961 to the end of 1962.During this period,both sides finally reached agreements on safeguards,the sensitive list and all other essential matters of the treaty.On November 14,1962,Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United Kingdom and Japan was signed,relative notes were exchanged.Britain and Japan promised to exchange MFN treatment and national treatment for each other.The United Kingdom also promised to disinvocate G.A.T.T.Article XXXV against Japan.Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty came into force in May,1963.The treaty solved the largest problem of Britain and Japan bilateral relation.In the same year,Britain and Japan established regular consultation regime,which provided a stable platform for bilateral communications except for normal diplomatic channels.Regular consultations promoted the development of Anglo-Japanese relations and manifested the increase of Japanese international status.However,Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty left several problems unsolved.There were still a number of trade barriers in the Anglo-Japanese commercial field.Both sides made a series of efforts to solve these problems.The most typical attempt was the Long-term Arrangement for Liberalisation proposed by the United Kingdom in 1969.Unfortunately,the negotiation of Anglo-Japanese long-term arrangement for liberalisation finally broke,because Japan was reluctant to give satisfactory offer on the Scottish whiskey and wool tariffs which were the main concerns of the U.K..In fact,the model of Britain and Japan's bilateral relation was gradually changing after the two countries signed the commercial treaty.In the early post-war period,Japan was anxious to gain the friendship of Great Britain in order to achieve economic revival and reintegration into the international community as soon as possible.Then,Japan acquired equal status with Britain via the commercial treaty with her.To the end of1960 s,it had become the Britain that had to actively seek the kindness and friendship of Japan for protecting her own strategic interests in the Asia and Pacific area.