On 27 October 2021, the European Commission released a report on the implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements that offers a useful snapshot of the evolution of the EU’s preferential trade in 2020, looking at 37 main trade agreements with 67 partners. It is accompanied by a staff working document with detailed information per partner country and agreement, including the EPA with Japan. Effective implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements and international trade rules have added €5.4 billion to EU exports in 2020.
Switzerland remained the EU’s top trading partner, with 21.5% of trade, followed by Turkey (11.3%), Japan (9.4%), Norway (7.8%) and South Korea (7.7%). Together, these five partners accounted for more than half of EU preferential trade (57.7%).
On page 25, the report includes the important work of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation for supporting the take-up of the EPA by SMEs, notably via its EPA helpdesk which is also mentioned under the "key facts" on page 8.
Source : European Commission
The EU-Japan Centre currently produces 5 newsletters :
Joint venture established in 1987 by the European Commission (DG GROW) and the Japanese Government (METI) for promoting all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between the EU and Japan.
The EU-Japan Centre’s activities are subject to the allocation of a Grant Agreement by the European Commission for 2024-2026