Japan rushes UK to agree first post-Brexit trade deal – FT

During the post-Brexit trade deal negotiations, Japan has given a six-week ultimatum to the UK for a deal, which in turn sours the upbeat mood of the British policymakers who are already struggling with EU-UK talks.

Financial Times came out with the news near the end of Monday’s US session saying that Japan has given the UK just six weeks to strike a post-Brexit deal, putting Boris Johnson’s government under pressure to agree one of the fastest trade negotiations in history — and Britain’s first in more than 40 years.

Key quotes

Time is so short that both sides will need to ‘limit their ambitions’, warned Hiroshi Matsuura, Tokyo’s chief negotiator, in comments that dash UK hopes of winning deep trade liberalization from Japan.

While meeting the timetable would hand Mr. Johnson an early trade victory, it also highlights the risk of the UK being bounced into bad deals before the Brexit transition expires at the end of the year.

Striking a trade agreement with Japan is one of the main priorities for Liz Truss, the UK’s trade secretary, who hailed the start of talks as a ‘historic moment’ for both countries. When the talks began two weeks ago, she said the UK and Japan had signed up to an ‘ambitious timeline’ to complete the negotiations.

Tokyo is dangling the prospect of a second chance for more leisurely negotiations if the UK applies to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with 11 Pacific nations, including Japan, Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam, adding to the pressure for a quick deal now.

FX implications

Although the news should have ideally probed the GBP/USD pair buyers, the quote seems to ignore the catalyst while taking rounds to 1.2470 during the early Tuesday morning in Asia.