Brussels, BELGIUM — The European Union and Japan today recognised each others’ data protection systems to allow the free flow of data between their economies.
The agreement is linked to the major trade agreement signed today, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The EPA unfortunately addresses only few barriers to digital trade. On data flows the EPA included a commitment to “reassess within three years … the need for inclusion of provisions on the free flow of data.”
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Vice President & Head of Office Christian Borggreen:
“Today’s agreement ensures strong protection for consumers and legal certainty for firms transferring data between the EU and Japan. It’s time to build on this success by setting an ambitious trade standard to fight against forced data localisation around the world.”
Japan is the biggest trading partner to have received full EU adequacy recognition. In the past two decades only Andorra, Argentina, Faeroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay have adopted EU type data protection laws. The EU is undertaking trade negotiations with major trading partners, such as Mexico, Australia, and Indonesia. The EU has not been able to agree on trade provisions that would stem the global rise of forced data localisation requirements. There are more than 75 such measures worldwide. This increasingly hurts European exporters.
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