Digital provisions and state-of-the-art data that go well beyond the EU-Japan agreement, including the free flow of data, the obligation to respect the principles of net neutrality and the prohibition of unjustified location of data which will prevent British companies from bearing the additional costs of setting up servers in Japan. At the end of the day, trade is a powerful lever for economic growth. The CBI and its members will now work with the government to take full advantage of the opportunities and ensure that the benefits are felt in all parts of the UK. Politically and commercially, this is an important agreement for the United Kingdom and strengthens our relationship with the world`s third largest economy. The agreement goes beyond the benefits of the existing trade agreement between Japan and the EU in areas such as digital and data. It is also a decisive step towards the UK`s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), one of the world`s largest free trade zones, covering 11 Pacific countries, including Japan and Australia, and representing about 13% of the world economy. The first discussions on the UK`s accession to the CPTPP have begun. [2] ONS (2020). Total UK trade: all countries, not seasonally adjusted. UK goods exports to Japan accounted for 1.9% ($7.262 million in 2019) of total exports of goods and services 1.6% ($7.987 million in 2019) of total services exports. As Morita-Jaeger (2020) explained, the UK has been a hub for Japanese companies in Europe since the 1980s and a gateway to the EU market for Japanese companies. Recalling that the main concerns of Japanese investors are regulatory changes and an end to the free movement of people between the EU and the UK[12], the end of the smooth running of trade between the EU and the UK, even in the case of a free trade agreement between the EU and the UK, will inevitably have an impact on Japanese investment in the UK.
Given the economic shock of Covid-19 on the UK economy (-10.1% real GDP growth expected in 2020 (OECD)[13], FDI will be an important source of medium- and long-term economic recovery in the United Kingdom. In this context, it can be read that Japan is the largest foreign investor abroad (14%) the world as a whole in 2018. [14] And the United Kingdom is NT`s second-largest destination for Japan, with a stock of $171.9 billion in 2019 after the United States ($533.3 billion). [15] [11] Department of International Trade (2020).
