In 2011 the European Union’s free trade agreement with South Korea was considered its most ambitious agreement with any Asian economy. In 2019, however, this distinction was handed over to the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan. With Japan being a top-ten trading partner of the EU, the EPA is of economic and political importance in times of rising protectionism to support rule-based trading principles as well as international standards and sustainability goals. The paper reviews EU-Japan trade structures and the components of the EPA accompanied by a structural gravity estimation that builds on the experiences of the EU-South Korea agreement. Manufacturing industries benefit from reduced duties and application of the same international standards, facilitating approval. The greatest potential for cost reduction through tariff cuts remains in the strongly protected agri-food sector. Given the importance of non-tariff measures in negotiations of the EPA, we consider a counterfactual ‘gold-standard’ scenario, in which the regulatory gap for standard-like non-tariff measures between the EU and Japan closes. General equilibrium results suggest welfare effects for Japan of up to 0.05% of real GDP. Estimated GDP effects for the EU are in the magnitude of 0.01%, however, with marked differences across EU Member States.

2011年，欧盟与韩国的自由贸易协定被认为是与任何亚洲经济体最雄心勃勃的协定。然而，在2019年，这一区别被移交给了欧盟与日本的《经济伙伴关系协定》（EPA）。随着日本成为欧盟的十大贸易伙伴，EPA在保护主义抬头​​以支持基于规则的贸易原则以及国际标准和可持续性目标的时代具有经济和政治意义。本文回顾了欧盟-日本的贸易结构和EPA的组成部分，并结合了基于欧盟-韩国协议经验的结构性引力估计。制造业可从降低关税和采用相同的国际标准中受益，从而有利于批准。通过削减关税来降低成本的最大潜力仍然是受到严格保护的农业食品部门。鉴于非关税措施在EPA谈判中的重要性，我们考虑了一种反事实的“金标准”方案，其中欧盟与日本之间类似标准的非关税措施的监管差距正在缩小。总体均衡结果表明，对日本的福利影响高达实际GDP的0.05％。欧盟对GDP的估计影响为0.01％，欧盟成员国之间存在显着差异。总体均衡结果表明，对日本的福利影响高达实际GDP的0.05％。欧盟对GDP的估计影响为0.01％，欧盟成员国之间存在显着差异。总体均衡结果表明，对日本的福利影响高达实际GDP的0.05％。欧盟对GDP的估计影响为0.01％，欧盟成员国之间存在显着差异。