showCASE 35 | The Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement: an apparent win-win situation in the making
After four difficult years of negotiations and eighteen rounds of (in)tense talks, two of the world’s largest economies, the European Union (EU) and Japan, finally came to a consensus regarding the main elements of the planned Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (JEEPA). After EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Japanese foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, sealed the deal through a symbolic exchange of Japanese Daruma dolls (symbolizing fortune and resolution), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker provisionally signed the agreement just before this year’s G20 summit. Some details of the pact still need to be further negotiated and then approved by both sides (in case of the EU – all its Member States), but it is hoped that JEEPA will come into effect starting from early 2019.
Photo: Reuters
