Negotiators from the EU and Japan are ramping up their work to clinch a bilateral trade agreement, with reports suggesting that the two sides are tentatively hoping to have a political deal in place by this year’s G20 leaders’ summit. The two trading giants have been negotiating since 2013 – a move that was greeted in itself as an “historic” achievement, given the size of the economies involved, the commitments made in lowering non-tariff and tariff barriers, and the potential to ramp up foreign direct investment. (See Bridges Weekly, 27 March 2013 ) Since then, they have held 18 negotiating rounds towards reaching a trade deal, with the EU-Japan accord referred to as both a free trade agreement (FTA) and an economic partnership agreement (EPA). The agreement that they are envisioning would tackle goods and services market access, regulatory cooperation, intellectual property, non-tariff measures, rules of origin, competition policy, sustainable development, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, procurement, and investment, among other topics. “I have my chief negotiator for Japan in Tokyo, [with] instructions to stay as long as it is needed to try to get this deal done. We are in a very intense phase of our negotiation and hope to...