EU and Japan emerge as champions of global free trade with new accord

Tokyo

JAPAN and the European Union (EU) will go into the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit in Hamburg on Friday as global champions of trade liberalisation following an agreement reached on Thursday in Brussels on an EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA) that has been four years in the making.

Their leaders hope to demonstrate to key advanced and emerging economies - and not least to US President Donald Trump - that faith in free trade has not been shaken by Mr Trump's abrupt exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or by Britain's decision to quit the EU.