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On May 31 at the EU Foreign Affairs (Trade) Council meeting in Brussels, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Egidijus Meilūnas called on the European Union to ensure that when trading with competitive countries tariff preferences should be not unilateral, but reciprocal and set out in free trade agreements.

“Trade contributes greatly to economic growth. We estimate that trade with such countries as Japan and the U.S. has big perspectives. Lithuania welcomes the European Commission’s report on the results of an EU-Japan “scoping exercise”, exploring the prospects for a possible free trade agreement. We must build upon this progress and open free trade negotiations with Japan, which will contribute to economic growth,” Meilūnas said.

He also called on participants of the meeting to dedicate particular attention to the neighbouring countries and, first of all, sign a free trade agreement with Ukraine.

The contribution of trade to the EU economic growth was one of the most important issues of the Foreign Affairs (Trade) Council meeting. Lithuanian representative stressed that the most competitive developing countries had to engage in trade liberalization. According to the Vice-Minister, the degree of openness of the EU should depend on concessions made by partner countries.

“Exports to other EU countries constitute an important part of Lithuania’s economic growth. Therefore, we are interested to guarantee equal opportunities for Lithuanian exporters in the EU internal market when competing with third country products. It is necessary to effectively use the legal instruments that are common in international trade to protect against unfair competition,” Meilūnas noted.

The Foreign Affairs Council meeting also discussed prospects for signing a free trade agreement with the U.S., progress in negotiations with India and Canada on such agreements and prospects for concluding them already this year. The meeting also discussed the EU trade relations with strategically important partners, such as China.