On Friday 17 November, the European Commission stated that during a phone conversation on 15 November, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and Japan's new Trade Minister Taro Kono had assessed progress in the talks to finalise the EU-Japan free trade agreement.
When the announcement was made on 16 July of an agreement in principle for an EU-Japan economic partnership agreement, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the then recently re-elected prime minister...