The EU’s largest bilateral trade agreement, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), was adopted this week with support by the European Parliament, a week after Japanese lawmakers signed off on the accord.
The trade agreement removes almost all tariffs between Japan and the EU with a marketplace valued at about one-third of the world economy. Representatives from both entities state that they moved fast on the two-year sprint to the economic partnership due to US protectionism, Britain’s Brexit, China’s rising economic status, and Russia’s global influence.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said, “Together with close partners and friends like Japan we will continue to defend open, win-win and rules-based trade.” The EU, US and Japan were in talks on a potential trade agreement with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). After the US withdrew from TPP, the EU and Japan reportedly saw the importance of expediting a trade agreement. It is expected to be in force as of February 1, 2019.
The EU-Japan EPA will remove the majority of the €1 billion of duties paid annually by EU companies exporting to Japan, as well as a number of long-standing regulatory barriers, for example on car exports. It will also open up the Japanese market of 127 million consumers to key EU agricultural products and increase EU export opportunities in many other sectors.
The European Parliament is in the process of evaluating the complementary EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement with provisional application in early 2019.