The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson will meet with the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe on August 26, 2019, three days before the G7 Summit in Bearetz, France.
Andrew Parsons – Pool | Getty Images
LONDON – The UK and Japan on Friday agreed in principle to a trade deal, with the UK striking its first major deal since Brexit.
The announcement, hailed by the UK as a “historic moment”, comes as Britain struggles to secure agreements with its closest trading partners in the European Union.
The UK’s Department of Commerce said UK businesses would benefit from tariff-free trade on 99% of Japan’s exports. He also suggested that the deal would increase the country’s trade with Japan by .2 15.2 billion (અ 19.5 billion).
The deal would include digital and data provisions that would make the EU-Japan deal “much further”, Britt claimed, “enabling the free flow of data while maintaining high standards of security for personal data.”
The provisional agreement, which will require parliamentary approval from both the UK and Japan, will take effect later this year.
“This is a historic moment for the UK and Japan as our first post-Brexit trade countries,” UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“Strategically, this deal is an important step towards joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and keeping Britain at the center of a network of modern free trade agreements with like-minded friends and allies,” Truss said.
Sterling trades at 1.2770 during mid-morning trading, which is around 0.25% for the session.
‘Global Britain’
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier this year that Britain could become the superman of global trade by making lucrative deals on its own terms after leaving the EU in January.
The proposed deal with Japan is the first major deal for the world’s fifth-largest economy after Brexit.
Caroline Fairbairn, director general of the British Federation British Industry, described the agreement as a “moment of success” that would be “welcomed by businesses across the country.”
“The business will help the government in its efforts to secure more trade deals worldwide and promote their benefits to communities. The Japan deal could be the first of many,” Fairburn said.
However, critics of Johnson’s “Global Britain” agenda suggest that free trade agreements with countries around the world are unlikely to offset lost exports to the European Union if it does not reach an agreement with Brussels.
The UK and EU are currently in loggerheads over Britain’s so-called internal market bill. The bill, proposed earlier this week, seeks to improve part of the country’s Brexit deal with the EU. If approved, it would allow ministers to change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol to the withdrawal agreement reached last year.
Brandon Lewis, secretary of the Northern Ireland Secretariat, a government minister, has since acknowledged that the domestic market bill would “break international law”.
In response, the UK’s opposition Labor Party condemned the proposal, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that she was “very concerned” about the British government’s announcement.
Stateside, Nancy Pelosi, a House speaker and a vocal Democrat legislator, said Wednesday that if the UK violates its international agreements, “there is no possibility of a US-UK trade agreement being passed by Congress.”
The UK and the EU are currently trying to reach a trade agreement before the transition period ends on 31 December, if no agreement is reached if the UK adheres to the rules of the World Trade Organization.
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