Free trade deal announced

Japan and the European Union, EU have concluded negotiations on a giant free trade deal. The deal, which the EU has called its biggest ever, must be signed and ratified on both sides. The broad outlines of the deal were agreed to in July. Once completed, it will forge an economic zone of 600 million people worth 30 percent of global GDP. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said earlier that the agreement, which was four years in the making, had “strategic importance” beyond its economic value. “It sends a clear signal to the world that the EU and Japan are committed to keeping the world economy working on the basis of free, open and fair markets with clear and transparent rules fully respecting and enhancing our values, fighting the temptation of protectionism,” the pair said in a statement released in Brussels. Through the deal, the EU hopes to get better access to one of the world’s richest markets, while Japan hopes to jump-start an economy that has struggled to find solid growth for more than a decade. This will include opening up the EU market to Japanese cars and auto parts. The two sides were aiming to finalise the specifics in the hope of signing the deal next summer and putting it into effect in 2019.