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The European Union says it's the most important bilateral trade agreement it's ever done.
Japan and the EU have signed a wide-ranging free trade deal that will see tariffs on exports and imports slashed.
Our Europe correspondent Jack Parrock reports.
IN: "Until now..."
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DUR: 2 mins 20 secs
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REPORTER VO:
Until now, when European gourmet cheeses have been exported to the growing market in Japan, a 30 percent trade tariff has been imposed.
But with the EU and Japan free trade agreement now signed, those duties will be cut.
For the EU this deal is about making a point.
<<Donald Tusk - EU Council President>>
"Although some are saying the time of isolationism and disintegration is coming again, we are demonstrating that this is not the case. That the world really doesn't need to go 100 years back in time."
REPORTER VO:
Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe is calling it as a win-win agreement.
<<Shinzo Abe - Japanese Prime minister>>
"Japan and the EU account for 30 percent of the GDP, 10 percent of the population and 40 percent of trade of the world so this is the birth of the world's largest free, advanced, industrialized economic zone."
REPORTER VO:
But opponents say the deal will be bad for the environment and won't curb illegal trade or overfishing - and that it will hand power to corporates over small businesses.
Japan says this trade deal is as important as the Asia trade pact with the United States known as TPP, which fell apart when Donald Trump took over the US presidency. For the EU it's using the agreement to show that it can press on with trade deals without the UK following the brexit vote.
One of the sticking points in the deal was how fast the 10 percent duty in Europe on Japanese cars would be phased out - they compromised on 7 years.
And it all happened ahead of a meeting of the G20 leaders in Germany.
<<Andre Sapir - Senior Research Fellow at Bruegel>>
"It's not an accident that this deal is being agreed upon just before the G20 meeting so both the EU and Japan will be able to go at the G20 in Hamburg and tell not only America, but tell the world that we are pursuing still an agenda of trade liberalisation."
REPORTER VO:
Across the board, it's thought the total saving for exporters of things like cheese, wine and cars, will be more than 1 billion dollars.
But the deal still needs to be signed off by national and regional parliaments in Europe and Japan before it can go into force.
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