EU and Japan reach deal on cross-border data flows

The EU and Japan completed a deal on cross-border data flows, the European Commission said today.

The agreement will make doing business in the online world “easier, less costly and more efficient,” the Commission said in a statement.

The agreement was concluded on the sidelines of a gathering of G7 trade ministers in Japan, which was co-chaired by EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis and the Japanese ministers of trade and foreign affairs. Once ratified, the deal’s terms will be included in the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan.

The data economy, which represented 2.6 percent of EU economic output in 2019, is expected to almost triple by 2025, the Commission said.

“That is why this is a landmark deal,” Dombrovskis said in the statement. “It is essential to ensure the free flow of data with trust and to help us [in] shaping global rules on data flows.”

The EU has already made similar data rules part of agreements with trade partners such as New Zealand and the U.K. The bloc has started negotiations on a digital trade agreement with Singapore and will soon do so with South Korea.