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Feb 22, 2019
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UK to miss deadline to sign free-trade deal with Japan

Published
Feb 22, 2019

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has admitted the UK will not have enough time to roll over an EU trade deal with Japan if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal.



Japan was one of the most important EU trade deals the UK hoped to replicate in the event of a no-deal Brexit, as the value of British exports to Japan amount to £9.9bn every year.

The Department for International Trade said it is currently negotiating continuity agreements with 40 countries currently covered by EU membership, but Japan has to be excluded because the EU trade deal has only come into force this month.

The EU’s trade agreement with Turkey will be also excluded.

In 2017, Liam Fox said the UK would be able to replicate 40 EU free trade deals by the 29 March, which is the scheduled date for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.

But so far, the government has been able to secure transition agreements with just seven of the 69 countries and regions which have trade deals with the European Union. These include Switzerland, Chile, the Faroe Islands, Eastern and Southern Africa, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The UK has also mutual recognition agreements with the US, Australia and New Zealand, which will allow businesses to continue trading as freely as they do now after Brexit day.

Fox stressed that the government is trying to avoid disruption by leaving the EU with a deal. He told the BBC: "Of course, we will get access to all the EU's free trade agreements if we leave the EU with a deal, which is the government's policy, and for all those who don't want any disruption, there's one easy way to avoid that, which is to vote for the deal which the Prime Minister has."

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