EU, Japan in largest world trade deal

THE EUROPEAN Union and Japan concluded negotiations on a free trade deal to create the world’s largest open economic area, signalling their rejection of the more protectionist stance of US President Donald Trump.

The two parties, who agreed the outlines of a deal in July, said negotiators had now finished a legal text that would open up trade for economies making up about 30 per cent of global output.

“Japan and the EU will join hands and build a free, fair and rule-based economic zone, which will be a model of an economic order in the international community in the 21st century,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

Japan had been one of the signatories to the planned TransPacific Partnership, a massive 12-nation trade alliance that Trump ditched on his first day in office. Abe said a “new era” would now start for the EU and Japan.

The deal, combining the 28-nation bloc and the world’s third largest economy, will remove EU tariffs of 10 per cent on Japanese cars and the 3 per cent rate typically applied to car parts.

For the EU, it will scrap Japanese duties of 30 per cent on EU cheese and 15 per cent on wines as well as allowing it to increase beef and pork exports and gain access to large public tenders in Japan.

“This is the biggest trade agreement we have ever negotiated for the European Union,” EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said.