British PM seeks to preserve gains from EU-Japan trade deal

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Theresa May said she’s keen for the UK to keep any benefits from a potential trade deal between the European Union and Japan after its scheduled departure from the bloc in March 2019.
“There’s obviously a number of trade deals that the EU has with other countries and we are looking at the possibility of those being able to brought over certainly as initial trade deals with the United Kingdom,” May told reporters on a flight to Japan ahead of a three-day trip. “That I think will give business certainty which is what business wants at the point at which we leave.”
Her lofty goal of convincing the world’s third-biggest economy to use its trade deal with the EU as a basis for a future agreement with Britain comes as North Korea sours the mood with its latest missile tests. May will sit down with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Emperor Akihito and military and business officials, as she seeks to offer a key Asian ally and trade partner the kind of reassurances her top diplomat failed to do when he visited last month.
Japan is in the final stages of brokering a free-trade agreement with the world’s largest trading bloc, from which the UK is breaking away. That puts May in a difficult position, as her own predecessor hailed it as a landmark that would add an annual $6.5 billion to the UK economy.
The reality is that May will need all her powers of persuasion to extract commitments from the Japanese, given that her own team of negotiators in Brussels has failed to convince the EU to hurry divorce talks onto commerce.
“I don’t see it as a simple matter, taking one text and translating it into a bilateral agreement,” Britain’s former ambassador to Japan, David Warren, told. “I think it would be a little more complicated than that.” He said May’s hosts had grave doubts about Brexit.
“The Japanese simply don’t understand why we’re doing this. They’re far too polite to say so publicly.”
To make the case for a trade deal, May has taken with her 15 business executives, from Aston Martin Lagonda CEO Andy Palmer to Confederation of British Industry Director General Carolyn Fairbairn. Trade Secretary Liam Fox was also on the plane.
“My discussions with PM Abe will focus on how we can prepare the ground for an ambitious free-trade agreement after Brexit, based on the EU-Japan agreement which I very much hope is nearing conclusion,” May said.