When you would like to start a trading, you need to check the cost in order to make a profit for your business. Product cost, freight cost, tax… You have all sorts of costs you need to check in advance. Nevertheless, if there is an agreement between the countries, there is a cost which you can eliminate.

Custom duty

Have you ever heard of the term “FTA” or “EPA”?

FTA stands for Free Trade Agreement and EPA stand for Economic Partnership Agreement. If your country and Japan agreed on FTA or EPA, you can apply to reduce or totally eliminate the custom duty.

Let’s check 1 of the example.

Switzerland Case

Switzerland and Japan have been agreed on EPA for a long time since 2009.

When you do not apply, for example, you need approximately 20JPY of custom duty to pay in Switzerland for 720ml Japanese Sake as above.

It is only 20 JPY but if you imported 10,000 bottles, it will be 200,000 JPY and you cannot ignore this difference.

FTA EPA at 2019

Like Switzerland, there are 18 countries or districts which signed EPA already, and 7 to go as below;

(Ref. MOFA Japan)

Signed

Japan-Singapore EPA

Japan-Mexico EPA

Japan-Malaysia EPA

Japan-Chile EPA

Japan-Thailand EPA

Japan-Indonesia EPA

Japan-Brunei EPA

Japan-ASEAN EPA

Japan-Philippines EPA

Japan-Switzerland EPA

Japan-Vietnam EPA

Japan-India EPA

Japan-Peru EPA

Japan-Australia EPA

Japan-Mongolia EPA

TPP12

TPP11

Japan-EU EPA

Under negotiation

Japan-Canada EPA

Japan-Colombia EPA

Japan-China-Korea FTA

RCEP

Japan-Turkey EPA

Japan-GCC FTA

Japan-Korea EPA

Now you understand what is EPA/FTA and why you need to know in advance.

Next, you need to know “HOW” you can down the cost.

Please see next article to know how you apply in detail.

Kindly wait for an update.

There are useful links to check abut law or custom duty in our “USEFUL LINKS”, so please check our this page as well.

Thank you for your time.