Feb. 1th, 2019

On February 1, the "European-Japanese economic cooperation agreement" (EPA) came into effect, according to Greece's European Union news agency. Under the European commission, the European-Japanese "economic co-operation agreement" (EPA), the EU's largest ever trade deal, will create a trade area covering 600m people and accounting for nearly one third of global gross domestic product. It took nearly six years to come into force from the start of negotiations in 2013.

Under the EPA agreement, more than 94 percent of tariffs in bilateral trade categories between the EU and Japan will be eliminated. The ECCRD also learned that on January 19, 2019, CPTPP member states will hold their first ministerial meeting in Tokyo, Japan, after the agreement came into force

The policy core of EPA and CPPP is to further promote free trade. Chinese scholars have predicted that the EPA and CPPP will pose certain challenges to China's economy. In the face of increasingly complex international environment, China needs stronger and more open countermeasures.