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The day after Japan reached a trade agreement with the US over tariffs, the EU and Japan announced plans to strengthen trade cooperation and combat economic enforcement during the 30th EU-Japan Summit held in Tokyo on Wednesday.
“The world is changing rapidly. For strategic partners like us, it means getting closer to the reality of our times,” he said after the summit that it opposes a global background that goes against “the tensions and uncertainties of trade, fragile supply chains, challenges of over-relent and challenges of immature arenas.”
In a joint statement released at the end of the summit, the EU and Japan reaffirmed their support for the rules-based international trade order by the US challenging global trade standards by unilaterally imposing tariffs on its trading partners.
“We agree to maintain and strengthen stable, predictable rules-based freedom and fares, including maintaining the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core,” the Japanese Prime Minister said.
However, the announcement of deals between the US and Japan overshadowed the news of the summit after weeks of difficult negotiations with Tokyo. The agreement, announced by US President Donald Trump, sets US tariffs on Japanese imports at 15%, eases from the previously threatened 25% collection.
For that part, the EU is facing equally difficult negotiations with the US administration, and there is no agreement at this time. Currently, the block is subject to US tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum, 25% on cars and 10% on all other imports.
In this troubled trade context, the EU and Japan plan to strengthen implementation of trade agreements that have been linked since 2019. EU companies already export nearly 70 billion euros of goods and 28 billion euros each year with 28 billion euros of service, and trade on both sides has increased by 20% since 2019, according to Von Der Leyen.
The committee’s chairman announced that both partners will speed up the implementation of contracts in areas such as government procurement and sanitation and plant academia standards. The EU and Japan also want more mutual investment.
On the eve of the EU-CHINA summit, the joint statement also announced cooperation to reduce strategic dependencies such as important sources for China to implement export restrictions.
Cooperation has expanded to economic coercion and non-market policies and practices, with China in both sights.
Between August 2023 and June 2025, Japan had to face China’s ban on seafood imports. The EU has several ongoing trade disputes with Beijing over electric vehicles, dairy products, pork and spirit.
