Relations Union/Industrialised countries of North America, Far East and Australasia: trade relations and cooperation projects

PURPOSE : to present a proposal to support the implementation of EU policies in the field of cooperation and the promotion of commercial relations with the industrialised countries of North America, the Far East and Australasia. CONTENT : The countries concerned are the United States, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The number of projects in the realm of cooperation and the promotion of commercial relations has grown over recent years. This is the logical consequence of the various bilateral arrangements signed over the past decade between the EU and these countries. It is now necessary to create a solid legal and budgetary framework to underpin these actions. EU financing in the field of cooperation will cover the following types of activities : -education and information of the public on the bilateral relations between the EU and the partner countries, with particular reference to decision-makers, opinion formers and their multipliers. -strengthening cultural, academic and people to people links -promotion of the dialogue between political, economic and social partners and NGO's in various relevant sectors -research work and studies -cooperative projects in science and technology, energy, transport and environmental matters -enhancing customs cooperation -enhancing the visibility of the EU in the partner countries -pilot schemes, which could subsequently lead to new regular activities to be financed. Commercial relations - actions will be aimed in particular at the development of closer trade and investment relations between the EU and partner countries, creating an environment more favourable for Community enterprises, notably SME's on the markets of partner countries. There are special provisions for Japan and Korea. EU financing will cover in particular: -training programmes to build up pools of European executives able to communicate and operate in the Japanese and Korean business environment (Executive Training programme), -the recruitment, training, pre-mission preparation of groups of European business executives, notably from SMEs, to participate in actions in Japan aimed at improving their commercial presence on the Japanese market (the Gateway to Japan campaign), -a study on the feasibility of the Gateway to Korea campaign. The amount of Community funding needed will be established by the budgetary authority on an annual basis.�