UK, Japan free trade talks kick off

LONDON - Britain and Japan launched free trade negotiations Tuesday as the two large economies seek to seal a post-Brexit deal, said British Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss.

Truss said the free trade agreement with Japan will act as an important milestone towards the UK's accession to Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a goal which Japan fully supports.

Truss said the trade talks are the right response to the unprecedented economic challenge posed by coronavirus, creating a fairer international trade regime and thus avoiding protectionism and state domination of the economy.

The agreement will see UK-Japan trade, already 30 billion pounds (38 billion US dollars) annually, rise substantially in the years to come. It is also expected to replace the one the two countries currently have through the European Union.

Without a new deal by 2021 the two countries will default to World Trade Organization trading terms.

The ongoing negotiations came after Britain failed to score any breakthrough with the EU in their fourth round of future partnership talks and after London launched formal talks with Washington on a trade agreement.