Abstract
As Professor Nakagawa’s chapter rightly points out, natural resources have “unique economic characteristics” that require a special treatment under international trade law. In particular, their exhaustible nature justifies the adoption of restrictions on their exports that are otherwise inconsistent with international trade law, for the purpose of conservation. For example, an exporting country may claim that it is justified in adopting quantitative restrictions on the exports of natural gas in order to preserve gas reserves in its territory. Or, it may try to justify the imposition of export duties on a certain raw material in order to ensure that the material is sufficiently supplied to the domestic user industry.
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- 1.
Nakagawa (2016).
- 2.
Id., p.[TBA]. Espa points out that, while various WTO rules apply to both import and export restrictions, tariff concessions made by WTO Members are almost exclusively limited to import tariffs. Espa (2015), pp. 165–166.
- 3.
METI (2015), p. 773.
- 4.
His paper also examines provisions of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP Agreement) on fisheries subsidies. However, this comment will not discuss them because, unlike NAFTA and Japan’s EPAs with Indonesia and Australia, the TPP provisions on fisheries subsidies aim at preserving fisheries resources rather than securing a stable supply. Nakagawa (2016), p. [TBA].
- 5.
Nakagawa (2016), p. [TBA].
- 6.
Id., p. [TBA].
- 7.
ANRE (2015), p. 110.
- 8.
Id., p. 121.
- 9.
Id., p. 124.
- 10.
Strategic Energy Plan (2014), p. 4.
- 11.
Id.
- 12.
Id., pp. 7–9.
- 13.
The ratio of self-development is defined as the amount of the import volume of energy and natural resources that are developed under the control of Japanese enterprises plus domestic production volume divided by the total amount of import volume of energy and natural resources plus domestic production volume. METI/ANRE Press Release (August 24, 2015).
- 14.
Sectional Committee Report, p. 18. The ratio hit the record high of 24.72 % in 2014. METI/ANRE Press Release (August 24, 2015).
- 15.
Strategic Energy Plan (2014), p. 32.
- 16.
Id.
- 17.
Id., p. 33. See also Id., pp. 79–82.
- 18.
Mining Committee Interim Report, p. 36.
- 19.
ANRE (2015), pp. 128–129.
- 20.
Id., p. 121.
- 21.
Id., p. 125.
- 22.
JOGMEC (2015), Nickel, p. 8.
- 23.
Interim Report, p. 39.
- 24.
JOGMEC (2015), Tin, p. 6.
- 25.
The description of the measures is based on JOGMEC (2016). The measures may be subject to change.
- 26.
METI (2015), p. 80.
- 27.
Id.
- 28.
See, e.g., CTRIMs Minutes July 2015, paras. 57–91.
- 29.
Id., paras. 58–59.
- 30.
Chapter [TBA].
- 31.
See Sect. 2.1. of this comment.
- 32.
The relevance of investment rules is discussed in Chapter [TBA] in the book.
References
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Fukunaga, Y. (2016). Comment to Chapter “Free Trade Agreements and Natural Resources”. In: Matsushita, M., Schoenbaum, T. (eds) Emerging Issues in Sustainable Development. Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56426-3_9
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