1962年《日英通商航海条约》谈判析论

On the Negotiation of Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty (1962)

1955年9月,日本正式加入关税与贸易总协定。以英国为首的14国对日援引关贸总协定第35条,拒绝给予日本最惠国待遇。为同英国签署通商航海条约,获得最惠国待遇,日本与英国展开了长期艰苦的谈判。谈判迁延日久,英国缺乏尽快缔约的动力,日本则缺乏推动缔约的筹码。1950年代末日本政府推动贸易自由化的决定直接推动了谈判进程。为与英国达成协议,换取英国最惠国待遇及其撤销对日援引第35条的承诺,日本不得不在保护条款与敏感清单这两大问题上做出让步。1962年《日英通商航海条约》构建了日英经贸关系的稳定框架,扫清了战后日英关系发展道路上的最大障碍,日英关系进入一个新阶段。该条约提升了日本的国际地位,但却是在日本做出重大让步的前提下缔结的,日本经济外交在收获了重大胜利的同时,也显露了自身的局限。

Japan formally joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in September,1955. Britain and other 13 contracting parties invoked Article 35 of the GATT against Japan in order to avoid granting most-favored-nation treatment to Japan. In the pursuit of the most-favored-nation treatment of Britain and the withdraw of Article 35 against Japan,Japanese government started a series of negotiations for the commercial treaty with Britain. The negotiations dragged on for a long time. The main reason was that Britain lacked the motivation to conclude a commercial treaty with Japan as soon as possible while Japan lacked the bargaining counter to push for that treaty. The decision of trade liberalization which made by Japanese government in the late 1950s directly facilitated the negotiation process. In order to reach an agreement with Britain,Japan had to make more concessions,especially on the two key issues of safeguard and sensitive list. The Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty had established a stable formula for Anglo-Japanese commercial relations,clearing away the largest obstacle of the development of postwar Anglo-Japanese relations. Anglo-Japanese relations entered into a new period. The treaty promoted the settlement of Article 35 problem,however,Japan had made a series of major concessions for it,which means the Japanese economic diplomacy had its own limitations.