The E.U.-Japan Trade Deal: What’s in It and Why It Matters
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said the deal signified the creation of “the world’s largest free, advanced, industrialized economic zone.”
Here’s what you need to know about the deal:
The core of the agreement aims to increase the flow of Japanese cars to Europe and of European food to Japan.
Negotiators have refused to include whaling and logging in the talks, which has angered environmental groups
— Greenpeace has characterized the deal as “a huge transfer of power from people to big business.”
Ms. Malmstrom responded this week by saying organizations like Greenpeace would be opposed to “any
trade agreement,” ostensibly a criticism of the group’s stance against trade liberalization.
By JAMES KANTERJULY 6, 2017
BRUSSELS — The European Union and Japan announced a broad agreement on Thursday
that would lower barriers on virtually all the goods traded between them, a pointed challenge to President Trump on the eve of a summit meeting of world leaders in Germany.
Together, the European Union and Japan would constitute a trading bloc of a size to rival
that created by the North American Free Trade Agreement, presently the world’s biggest free trade zone (and one that Mr. Trump wants to renegotiate).
