EU, Japan finalize negotiations of economic partnership agreement

BRUSSELS, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and Japan on Friday finalized the negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said via social media site.

"It's done. The Commission and Japan finalised negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan today, a powerful political signal to the world, keeping the flag of free and fair trade high," Juncker tweeted.

The EPA will remove the vast majority of the 1 billion euros of duties paid annually by EU companies exporting to Japan, as well as a number of long-standing regulatory barriers.

It will also open up the Japanese market of 127 million consumers to key EU agricultural exports and will increase EU export opportunities in a range of other sectors.

The EU and Japan will now start the legal verification of the text. The agreement needs the approval of the European Parliament and EU member states and expected to enter into force before the end of the current mandate of the European Commission in 2019.

The EU-Japan EPA is one of the largest and most comprehensive economic agreements that either the EU or Japan has concluded so far. Enditem