The Fair Trade Commission is considering signing an agreement with Australia and South Korea on boosting antimonopoly cooperation after it enters a similar arrangement with Canada, a senior FTC official said Wednesday in Tokyo.
"After striking a deal with Canada, we want to work on strengthening cooperation with neighboring countries such as South Korea and Australia," said Akinori Uesugi, secretary general of the FTC.
Japan's fair trade watchdog signed a similar agreement with the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, last Thursday, marking the second such pact after one with the United States in 1999.
Japan and Canada will hopefully ink such a pact by the end of the year, Uesugi said.