On 17 July 2018, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was formally signed during the EU-Japan summit in Tokyo.  The EPA – the largest free trade agreement ever negotiated by the EU – has been years in the making and took significant time and effort to get to this stage. You can read more about the steps to date in our earlier post here.

The EPA aims to remove trade barriers between the EU and Japan, making it easier for firms to sell goods and services between the two economies. It will create the world’s largest open trade zone, covering nearly a third of global GDP, almost 40 percent of world trade and more than 600 million people.

The partnership also goes beyond trade, with wider social and political implications.  Given its scope of coverage, the EPA may encourage the development of global trade rules consistent with EU and Japanese standards.  The EPA also sends a powerful signal that two of the world’s largest economies explicitly reject trade protectionism. Continue reading →