Justin McCurry speaks to Meglena Kuneva, EU commissioner for consumer affairs
Growing concerns over food safety and labeling, consumer credit scams and personal data leaks led to the creation last September of Japan’s first consumer affairs agency. Meglena Kuneva, the European Union’s commissioner for consumer affairs, says the agency’s launch sends a “strong political signal” that Japan is getting serious about consumer rights. During a recent trip to Tokyo, Kuneva spoke about the challenges the global economy poses to consumer advocacy, and what Japan can learn from Europe.
How aware are Japanese consumers of their rights?
I have encountered a very vibrant society during my visit. I met the state minister for consumer affairs, Mizuho Fukushima, members of both houses of parliament, and consumer NGOs – which for me are a sign of how much importance a society attaches to consumer policy.
I think our traditions might be different, but the goal is the same: better protection. By that I mean the exact opposite of protectionism. To keep markets open we need to provide high-quality, safe goods and services, respect the rules with the same conviction and diligence, and assume our global responsibility.
What can Japan learn from the EU?
Europe has a lot to share, but it took us about 100 years to get to the point where we have strong market surveillance and strong consumer rights. We can learn from each other’s experiences. In these days of global governance, we should be ready to exchange information and ideas.
Our Japanese colleagues have stressed their willingness to follow the best practices from Europe. And as a technologically advanced society, Japan can teach us, for example, about the traceability of dangerous goods.
We could cooperate more in exchange and training, and provide technical assistance in certain areas. Normally, parties tend to guard information, sometimes because they want to protect a company’s reputation. Now we are opening up the flow of information, and the global market will benefit from that.
What advice do you have for the new agency?
Organizing an agency is an internal matter, but my one piece of advice would be to cooperate with civil society. The sooner the agency does that, the better the results will be.
Japanese products have a good reputation, but if you aren’t vigilant at all times, something can slip through. I have the same confidence in the European economy, but I tell manufacturers there that they have to maintain public trust. Trust is the currency of the modern economy, and the moment you lose it, somebody else will gain.
Which consumer issues interest you most?
I think we need to move our focus from products to services, and from offline to online. That’s a great challenge for legislators. We also need to strengthen the international dimension of consumer bodies.
It would be wrong, in difficult economic times, to protect national markets. But it is also wrong for people to take advantage of market freedoms by ignoring safety and environmental regulations.
The EU is not protectionist. Remaining open is our bread and butter.
Naturally, the EU wants to sell its products to our trading partners, thereby giving them access to more and cheaper goods. But not at the expense of safety.
What has the EU done to improve the safety of goods from China?
We have an excellent partnership with China because we understand each other.
In the future the key will be for standards to converge. At present, the United States and Europe do not have common standards with regard to the safety of products from China. But we are nearer to achieving commonality, on toy safety for example. That will help China tremendously, because now it is producing in one way for the European market and another for the American market.
China is the world’s biggest manufacturer of toys, so it is only natural that the highest percentage of substandard goods should come from there. I like to use another scale: how willing are our partners to listen and improve? In that respect, I have found China willing to cooperate. And the Chinese will feel more confident about investing in safety if they know that observing standards will guarantee them access to all markets.
The EU and Japan can cooperate on the traceability of dangerous goods. In recent years we have worked very hard to make the Chinese realise that without safety, our market will be closed to them.
What are your hopes for EU-Japan cooperation on consumer affairs?
This new agency will bring some order to our relationship, because now we know who our counterparts are. It is only a beginning, but I think our relationship will develop very quickly.
We might arrive at the same place eventually, but by different routes. The more sophisticated the global market becomes, the more we need to converge. Public authorities are not enough. They can’t do their job without very vigilant and well-educated citizens. No market is 100% safe. It would be misleading for me to say that we alone can close all of the loopholes.