That was a close one!

[AtW]

hmm so a free trade bloc that prevents its members signing trade deals with other countries

It's obviously required to have such prevention as otherwise separate deals will be made and the whole thing falls apart, which is what Brexiters want more than having Britain prosper.

[PurpleGorilla]

Does the EU-Jap deal have FOM and ECJ strings attached?

[vetran]

Was the EU in the business of this kind of trade agreement in 1947? In any case, I doubt Japan would have been much of a catch then.

Britain, France & Germany were in a bit of a state as well. No one apart from Switzerland had any money and theirs was Nazi gold..

Its been a thing for about 70 years as a trade organisation. I just pointed out its obviously a tulip one.

[vetran]

It's obviously required to have such prevention as otherwise separate deals will be made and the whole thing falls apart, which is what Brexiters want more than having Britain prosper.

so they should be good at making deals then?

70 years is a bit of a run up.

[AtW]

so they should be good at making deals then? 70 years is a bit of a run up.

It's better to have no deal, than a bad deal, remember?

[sasguru]

Was the EU in the business of this kind of trade agreement in 1947? In any case, I doubt Japan would have been much of a catch then.

Dunno why you bother. My 7-year old is more intelligent than vetran (sic). And that's not a joke.

[meridian]

hmm so a free trade bloc that prevents its members signing trade deals with other countries so it has more bargaining power and has been around for 70 years is celebrating finally creating a free trade deal with the world's third largest economy ?!

Intra-Europe is a free-trade block.

Despite the BBC's reporting, this trade deal with Japan is not a "free trade" deal (i.e. neither side can just import/export anything and everything). Both sides will have some form of protectionism.

However, this is interesting:

Two of the most important sectors are Japanese cars and, for Europe, EU farming goods into Japan.

Protectionism from the EU side doesn't appear to extend to protecting the sort of stuff that the UK makes and exports to the EU (and neither should it if we're leaving).....

[northernladyuk]

Does the EU-Jap deal have FOM and ECJ strings attached?

No, don't think so.

[PurpleGorilla]

No, don't think so.

So like the Canada deal then.

[BlasterBates]

The point is after this trade deal is signed Japan will have tariff free access to export cars to the EU, whereas the UK will still need to negotiate that. Germany of course will get tariff free access for their car exports to a market twice the size of the UK.

You need to think about that in particular as to how this will impact the UK´s negotiating position.