The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson, is anticipating “a fantastic, all-singing and all-dancing, UK-Japan free trade agreement” following talks in Tokyo.
Speaking after a meeting with Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, the former Mayor of London said he had found “a wide measure, or a growing measure, of understanding about what is involved”.
He added: “[The Japanese] see the possibilities of a great new free trade deal … We have seen since June 23 record investments in the UK – 2,200 separate investments”.
In particular, Johnson highlighted the £24 billion investment in Cambridge-based microchip company ARM by Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank shortly after the Brexit vote – “the biggest international investment I think we have seen in our country … perhaps in history” – which is expected to create 1,700 new jobs in Britain over the next five years.
The Foreign Secretary also emphasised “Nissan putting two more models on the production line in the North East,” concluding: “I find there is a much greater confidence and understanding of how it’s going to work, and a real enthusiasm for free trade with the UK.”
The developments come after EU loyalists hailed a supposed Free Trade Agreement between Tokyo and Brussels, claiming that it is only through the bloc that such deals can be struck.
However, the Japanese ambassador to the United Kingdom later poured cold water on this, pointing out that the EU had only managed to agree a deal “in principle” – thanks in large part to the efforts of British negotiators – and indicated that “Once UK is out, we will welcome bilateral deals with them”.
The EU is notoriously slow when it comes to trade agreements, and an Anglo-Japanese agreement after Brexit could, in fact, be completed first.
Johnson has followed his trip to Japan with a trip to New Zealand, which he describes as “at or near the very front of the queue” for a trade deal with Brexit Britain – possibly in competition with neighbouring Australia, which the Foreign Secretary will be visiting tomorrow.
“We move quickly. Australians are fleet of foot. We don’t muck around. We’re very simple. So we will move as quickly as the UK will move,” Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced at a recent press conference with Theresa May, where he praised the “vision for a post-Brexit Britain” as one “filled with optimism”.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, is in Washington D.C. to help pave the way for the “very big, very powerful” Anglo-American trade pact signalled by U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
“Bilateral trade is already worth more than £150bn a year, the U.S. is the single biggest source of inward investment into the UK, and together we have around $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies – and this is operating on the World Trade Organisation’s rules,” he wrote on July 23rd.
“Just imagine what a future ambitious free-trade agreement (FTA) could bring in the future.”
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