Japan, Mexico to work toward success of climate talks, revamp FTA+

TOKYO, Feb. 1 Kyodo -
Japan and Mexico agreed Monday to work toward the success of the next key U.N.
climate conference to be held in the Latin American country later this year and
revamp their bilateral free trade agreement to further promote trade and
investment.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderon
said in a joint statement that the two countries support the Copenhagen Accord,
which was agreed during the last U.N. climate meeting in the Danish capital,
and call on other countries to work for swift implementation of the pact.
In unveiling the statement, Hatoyama told reporters the Copenhagen gathering
was not fully successful because it failed to adopt the nonbinding political
accord.
''I felt the passion of President Calderon to make the next climate talks a
success and told him that Japan will spare no effort in extending support'' for
host Mexico, Hatoyama said.
The Copenhagen climate talks merely recognized the accord, which calls on
developed countries to set respective greenhouse gas emissions cut targets for
2020 and developing countries to take action to mitigate climate change.
The accord was not adopted at the Copenhagen conference due to opposition from
some countries that complained about the closed-door process among 26 economies
to draft the text of the accord.
In Monday's talks, Calderon told Hatoyama that he believes the consensus-based
decision-making process at the U.N. climate conference is not functioning at
present and that there should be alternative ways, a Japanese Foreign Ministry
official said.
The president also said countries should work out an incentive mechanism to
promote their actions to tackle climate change.
Hatoyama said the world should aim to produce a legally binding agreement based
on the Copenhagen Accord.
In the joint statement, the two countries reaffirmed the need to address the
concerns of those vulnerable to climate change, especially least developed
nations, small island nations and African countries, and to aim for limiting
warming to no more than 2 C from pre-industrial levels.
They also agreed that climate negotiations should be comprehensive and
transparent and produce a wide-ranging and ambitious accord.
Calderon told reporters he believes it will be important to ''make the most
of'' the Japan-Mexico FTA, which came into effect in April 2005, to help the
two countries to recover from the global financial crisis.
He called for more investment from Japan in areas such as renewable energy,
energy-saving technologies, the aerospace industry and infrastructure
construction in Mexico.
Noting that Japan and Mexico have been economically dependent on the United
States, which is the most important partner for both, Hatoyama said he believes
the bilateral FTA signals the Latin American emerging economy's intention to
bolster its ties with Asia.
==Kyodo
2010-02-01 23:52:41