EU-Japan free trade agreement shows changing international economic ties

THE EUROPEAN UNION and Japan signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday that is due to come into effect next year, according to which the EU will exempt 99 percent tariffs on imports from Japan, and Japan will eliminate 94 percent of tariffs on imports from the EU in 15 years. Beijing News comments:

The EU-Japan free trade area is home to 8.6 percent of global population, and accounts for 28.4 percent of the global economy and 37.2 percent of world trade. The agreement, when implemented, will create a free trade area that will have a larger trade scale than that of the North America Free Trade Agreement.

The founding of the European Economic Community in 1992 prompted the United States to take the lead in establishing NAFTA with Canada and Mexico two years later. Likewise, the Donald Trump administration's embracing of trade protectionism has accelerated the formation of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement that had gone through 18 rounds of painful negotiations since 2013.