(Brussels) “Protectionism does not protect”: this is the message that indirectly comes out of the EU-Japan trade agreement that has been roughly outlined today at the summit between the institutions of the 28 member countries and Tokyo’s government. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Commission, is pleased to say that this will also be the message that the EU and Japan have mutually agreed to bring to the G20 summit in Hamburg tomorrow. “We have agreed in principle on a future business partnership agreement, the impact of which will be felt far beyond our borders. Through such agreement, the EU and Japan will defend their common values and will commit to adhering to extremely high standards in areas such as labour, safety, environmental protection or consumers protection”, Juncker comments. It is the most important bilateral trade agreement ever entered into by the European Union, and, “as such, for the first time it will specifically bind the parties to adhere to the Paris Climate Agreement”. Such agreement will remove “most of the duties paid by the EU companies, which amount to 1 billion euros a year, it will open the Japanese market to the European Union’s key agricultural exports, and it will increase opportunities in several areas”. According to the EU Commission, such agreement lays down “extremely high standards in areas such as labour, safety, environmental protection or consumers protection, and it fully protects public services”.