May turning to Japanese for business boost
THERESA MAY will fly to Tokyo this week to pave the way for trade deals – and reassure Japanese businesses about their future in post-Brexit Britain.
The PM is to hold talks with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, as she steps up the Government’s efforts to prepare for the commercial realities of leaving the EU.
Downing Street says Mrs May, who will travel with more than a dozen business leaders including CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn, will ‘showcase the strength of British business and the shared confidence in the UK-Japan economic relationship as we leave the EU’.
The public courting of Tokyo reflects the increasingly intensive diplomatic dialogue behind the scenes to persuade Japanese businesses not to abandon the UK for EU countries after Brexit.
Upon becoming Prime Minister last year, Mrs May met with Carlos Ghosn, head of the Nissan car group, in Downing Street.
Shortly afterwards, he received
a private written assurance that the company would continue to enjoy the same trading conditions after Brexit.
Japan is a key trading partner, possessing the world’s thirdlargest economy after the US and China, and employs more than 140,000 British workers through its companies’ UK operations.
But Mrs May has faced criticism in the country for her declaration earlier this year that ‘no deal’ from Brussels over Brexit would be better than a ‘bad deal’.
Chancellor Philip Hammond, who has been fighting inside Cabinet for a ‘soft’ Brexit that retains customs and trading ties with the EU for an extended transitional period, has admitted that Japan’s financial sector has concerns about Britain’s exit.
He said he had sought to reassure them that London was striving to guarantee them ‘maximum possible access’ to EU markets, and to reassure them about the ‘challenges and opportunities’ presented.
But last night, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable poured scorn on Mrs May’s trip, describing it as ‘a modest delegation with a lot to be modest about’. He said: ‘Many Japanese companies invested in the UK as a gateway to the rest of the EU. They’ve been let down by this Government’s choice of a damaging Brexit outside the single market and customs union. Theresa May is now having to go cap in hand to beg them to carry on investing here.
‘The Japanese government and business community have made it very clear they’re much more interested in talking to the EU about future trade and investment than to Brexit Britain’.
Labour MP Ian Murray added: ‘Theresa May’s decision to leave the customs union and the single market is spooking big overseas investors in this country, including those from Japan. So it’s no wonder she’s flying halfway around the world to ask them to stay on bended knee.’
‘She’s begging them to carry on investing here’