EU and Japan ratify first FTA ever to include Paris Climate Agreement provision

Shinzō Abe, on the right, and Jean-Claude Juncker at EU-Japan Summit in Tokyo last week. (Copyright: European Union, 2018 / Photo: Etienne Ansotte)

In the week that US President Donald Trump called the European Union a “foe”, and reaffirmed his will to hit China with more duties on imports, Brussels signed a wide-ranging free trade deal with Japan. At the 25th EU-Japan summit in Tokyo last week, the leaders of the two areas indeed finally sealed two landmark […]

EU cuts fast-track free trade deals with Japan and Singapore and leads the trade scene

Containers at the port of Tokyo. (Copyright: European Union, 2016. Source: EC - Audiovisual Service. Photo: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi)

Last week, the European Commission presented the outcome of the negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan, formally putting forward the proposed trade deal with the Asian country for fast-track approval. Once signed, the EU-Japan agreement would represent the most important trade agreement ever negotiated by the EU, and Brussels is now officially pushing […]