BRUSSELS ¨C Senior European Union and Japanese officials reached a free-trade agreement on Wednesday, paving the way for leaders to conclude the political accord Thursday, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
¡°We¡¯ve reached political agreement at ministerial level on an EU-Japan trade deal. We now recommend to leaders to confirm this at summit,¡± she tweeted after meeting Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Brussels. ¡°We ironed out the few remaining differences.¡±
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should now sign the ¡°political agreement¡± with EU institutional chiefs Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk on Thursday in Brussels. The three men will then head to a G-20 summit in Hamburg, where the EU and Japan will urge U.S. President Donald Trump not to weaken U.S. free trade traditions.
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