Japan and the United Kingdom have agreed on Friday to adopt a new Economic Association Agreement to promote a free and open international trade, amid the concern for the repercussions of the tariff threats of the US President, Donald Trump, against his business partners.
In the first economic dialogue 2+2 between the two countries, their exterior and trade holders have committed themselves to collaborate to address the energy and security challenges raised by the new US administration policies, as the Japanese chancellor, Takeshi Iweaya, summarized in a press conference.
“Sharing fundamental values, Japan and the United Kingdom will continue to cooperate to defend and strengthen a free international economic order, just and based on standards,” said Iweaya in the appearance, collected by the local news agency Kyodo.
Iware has spoken in these terms after the meeting in Tokyo with his British counterpart, David Lammy, and the meeting between the head of Japanese economy, commerce and industry, Yoji Muto, and British company and commerce, Jonathan Reynolds, who have traveled to the Asian country accompanied by a delegation of businessmen.
This new economic approach seeks to boost exchanges and bilateral investment, with the aim of enhancing a bilateral relationship of 27,000 million pounds (about 32,000 million euros) annually, as indicated by the British Foreign Office.
Japan registered a commercial surplus of 500,380 million yen with the United Kingdom, about 3.1 billion euros/2.6 billion pounds to the current change.
The United Kingdom is the second country with which Japan performs this ministerial format of economic cutting, which until now had only maintained with the US, its mutual partner in security matters.
The Japanese and British prime ministers, Shigeru Ihiba and Keir Starmer, agreed to start this new dialogue when they met in November 2024 on the banks of the G20 summit in Brazil.
For London, Tokyo is the first power with which he adopts this approach, which occurs in a moment of growing geopolitical tension and in the midst of the commercial war spoiled by Trump.
The US president has imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, although he has announced a moratorium until early April for certain products such as motor racing, and has doubled the encumbrances to China at 20%.
The president has also threatened to impose what he considers ‘reciprocal tariffs’ to the commercial partners with whom the US maintains a deficit or whose non -tariff barriers put a preserve when arriving at the arrival of American products to them.
Japan and the United Kingdom, the fourth and sixth largest economies in the world, respectively, have been promoting their economic cooperation especially since London left the European Union.
In December 2024, the United Kingdom became the twelfth member of the broad and progressive agreement of Transpacific Association, better known as TPP12, the Free Trade Pact that entered into force in 2018 after precisely Trump decided to withdraw the US, one of its initial drivers, of the same after its previous arrival at the White House a year earlier.
Japan and the United Kingdom already maintain relevant cooperation in defense with programs such as the GCAP (Global Combat Air Program), a hunting prototype that they develop with Italy.
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Tokyo and London forge new economic association in the middle of Trump’s commercial war
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