THE JAPAN NEWS
 
Japan and Turkey will hold the first round of negotiations for concluding a bilateral economic partnership agreement for free trade in Tokyo for two days from Monday, the government has said.
 
At the working-level talks, Japan will be represented by Toshiro Suzuki, ambassador for trade and economic affairs at the Foreign Ministry, and Turkey by Murat Yapici, director general for European Union affairs at the Economy Ministry.
 
Japan is expected to request Turkey remove its tariffs on automobiles and other industrial goods, while Turkey will likely seek to expand agriculture and fishery product exports to Japan.
 
At their meeting in Tokyo in early January this year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now president of Turkey, agreed to begin EPA talks.