FTA

Global digital business

EU-Japan Trade Deal Lacks Digital Ambition

When the EU signed a free trade agreement with South Korea in 2010, it guaranteed protection against liability for Internet platforms – a key ingredient to maintaining Internet freedom. When the EU signed a free trade agreement with Japan last year, the guarantee against liability for Internet platforms was missing. Guarantees also were gone on the freedom of data flows […]

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TPP Comes Roaring Back

TPP Comes Roaring Back as 11 Countries Reach Agreement

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have made substantial progress when negotiators on Nov. 10 reached agreement for a way forward at the TPP Ministerial Meeting held in Vietnam. This marks an important milestone for building the broader free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region, which experienced a stumble block when U.S. President Trump pulled out of negotiations back im January. Yet […]

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Japan UK Brexit

Brexit: What Will Japanese Companies Do?

After invoking Article 50 on March 29, the United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union by March 2019. Yet with only 18 months to go and after a third failed round of negotiations, it looks increasingly possible that the parties may miss reaching a deal. Such a scenario is problematic for non-European multinationals, many of which steer their […]

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EU-Japan Summit July 7

A Trade Deal for the 21st Century

On the eve of the G20 summit in Hamburg, the European Union and Japan reached a political understanding about a new comprehensive free trade agreement. During the EU-Japan Summit, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, hailed the agreement as “the birth of the world’s largest, free, industrialized economic zone.” EU officials proclaimed it “the most important bilateral trade agreement ever concluded […]

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EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement

Understanding the EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement

Underway since 2013, it looks as if trade negotiations are coming to a close toward an EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as the European Union calls it, or Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the term used by the Japanese side. This is important as together, the economies of Japan and Europe account for a third of global GDP. Moreover, the EU […]

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