Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
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EU and Japan aim to strengthen cooperation against unfair trade practices and economic coercion, focusing on economic security and defense industry.
TOKYO (Reuters) -The European Union and Japan will work more closely to counter economic coercion and address unfair trade practices, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Wednesday.
Von der Leyen's comments came after an EU-Japan summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as the EU struggles to conclude a trade deal with the United States and a day before potentially tough meetings with Chinese leaders.
Japan struck a trade deal with the United States on Tuesday that lowered tariffs on auto imports in exchange for U.S.-bound investment and loans.
Von der Leyen said the EU and Japan would seek to strengthen economic security.
"We will also work more closely together to counter economic coercion and to address unfair trade practices," she said, adding later: "We believe in global competitiveness and it should benefit everyone."
Ishiba told reporters that the EU and Japan would work to maintain and strengthen a rules-based, free and fair economic order.
Ishiba added that the EU and Japan had agreed to work to strengthen the defence industry and to start talks for an information security agreement.
"In the field of security, we agreed to cooperate to launch a defense industry dialogue to strengthen the defense industrial base, which is a priority for both sides, and to begin official negotiations on a Japan-EU information security agreement," Ishiba said.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Makini Brice and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Kim Coghill)
Economic coercion refers to the use of economic power to influence or manipulate another country's actions or policies, often through sanctions or trade restrictions.
The European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, and managing the day-to-day operations of the EU.
Unfair trade practices involve deceptive, fraudulent, or unethical methods of competition in commerce, which can harm other businesses and consumers.
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