The EU and Japan sign a free trade agreement | TIME ONLINE



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For the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, it is the "largest bilateral trade partnership ever negotiated by the European Union": the EU and Japan have signed the European Union. Jefta Free Trade Agreement. What it represents and what criticism there is:

What does Jefta mean?

In fact, Free Trade Agreement called Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), but in public it is known as Jephta. It is the abbreviation of the term Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement . The agreement will come into force next year.

What are the key points of the free trade pact?

Stimulating growth and creating jobs – these are the main objectives of the trade agreement. To this end, tariffs and other trade restrictions should be reduced and non-tariff barriers to trade should be aligned. These include different standards and regulations, labeling regulations or technical standards.

According to the EU, this is the first trade agreement in which the signatories explicitly agree to sign the Paris climate agreement. The EU and Japan also wish to extend their cooperation in various fields, such as energy security and digital, crime and international security.

What does Jephta mean for consumers?

According to the European Commission, the EU and Japan are already trading in machinery, vehicles, and optical and medical instruments. Japan is also exporting more and more chemicals to EU countries, which in turn are exporting medicines to Japan.

The agreement will allow Japanese consumers to expect cheaper European wines and pork in the future because tariffs apply to products. In Europe, machine components and tea and fish should be cheaper. According to the Federal Ministry of the Economy, fears that whale meat may enter the EU are unfounded: "Whaling and imports of whale meat are prohibited in the EU. This will not change with the agreement. "

What does Jephta mean for business?

The EU hopes that EU exporters will save about 1 billion euros a year. Due to the size of the Japanese market with 127 million people, the federation also expects a significant increase in its exports. In 2017, Japan was the sixth largest trading partner of the EU with a trade volume of 129 billion euros.

Denominations of European origin such as Nuremberg sausages, Parma ham or feta cheese should be protected in Japan in the future. This should help EU companies to market their regional specialties. The protection applies to a total of 205 European products. The farmers' badociation therefore considers the agreement as an advantage for farmers.

What the trade agreement means for companies in the different EU Member States is on an interactive map of the EU. He said the already close trade relations between Japan and Germany would benefit from a new impetus for the agreement.

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