UK-Japan trade deal in doubt for Monday's deadline
26/08/2020 2
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Doubts are growing in Whitehall that a UK-Japan trade deal will be completed by next week’s deadline, despite Downing Street saying just yesterday the target would be met.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told journalists yesterday that Boris Johnson expected the deal to be closed by next Monday’s deadline.
However, City A.M. understands that Department of International Trade officials are less bullish about closing the deal by next week and that the deadline “may slip”.
The deal is a key part of the government’s post-Brexit “global Britain” agenda and talks are being conducted alongside trade negotiations with the EU, US, Australia and New Zealand.
Hiroshi Matsuura, Tokyo’s chief negotiator, said in June that the trade agreement needed to be wrapped up by the end of summer so it could be ratified in the Japanese parliament before the end of 2020.
It is understood that haggling over British agricultural products is holding the deal up, with the Financial Times reporting this month that trade secretary Liz Truss was trying to gain reductions in Stilton cheese tariffs.
Source: City A.M
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