At her hearing before the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, Swedish Commissioner-designate for Trade Cecilia Malmström presented her plans for the next five years. Ms. Malmström emphasized the importance of trade for Europe’s economy and employment and her plans to ensure trade policy represents broad interests. In this regard, Ms. Malmström foresees rapid progress on ongoing bilateral trade agreement negotiations, including the EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement (FTA). “We were pleased to see that the Commissioner-designate shares our ambitious vision to complete the EU-Japan FTA by 2015,” said Tetsuya Yokota, Chair of the JBCE Trade Policy Committee. “She echoed the words of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has also expressed his intent to conclude the negotiations for a comprehensive FTA during the next year”. The JBCE supports the deepening of EU-Japan trade relations through an ambitious FTA and fair market access that will contribute substantially to industrial growth and job creation.