One year later, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

February 1, 2020 marks the first anniversary of the entry into force of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). In the first ten months following the implementation of the agreement, EU exports to Japan went up by 6.6% compared to the same period the year before. This outperforms the growth in the past three years, which averaged 4.7% (Eurostat data). Japanese exports to Europe grew by 6.3% in the same period.

Pork exports have seen even stronger export growth over the same period, increasing by 12.6% over the same period.

The agreement removes the vast majority of the €1 billion in duties that were charged annually on EU exports to Japan.