London, UK: The first major Free Trade Agreement signed by Britain after Brexit has become a failure after new statistics showed that exports had dropped since the Agreement came into force.
Ms. Liz Truss, the Former Prime Minister of UK, signed a “historic” agreement with Japan as Trade Secretary in October 2020, defining it as a “landmark moment for Britain”. The deal was intended to promote trade by billions of pounds and help the United Kingdom recover from the pandemic.
The Conservatives have no trade policy worthy of the name and ministers are failing to stand up for UK interests in negotiations. This is making the huge economic damage they have caused even worse.
Mr. Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour Party’s Shadow Secretary for International Trade, stated.
The data collated by the Department for International Trade show exports to Japan dropped from $12.8 billion to $12.3 billion in the year to June 2022. Exports in goods dropped 4.9 percent to $6.3 billion and services fell 2 percent to $6.04 billion.
The decline is a major setback for Brexit advocates who had argued that commerce with non-EU nations would help compensate any losses from leaving the single market.
The latest data come after indications that Britain’s economy will likely struggle in comparison to other countries’ economies.
Mr. Mike Clancy, General Secretary of the Prospect Union, remarked that, “the bill could leave the UK a more dangerous and less fair place”.
Mr. Clancy added that the bill puts huge pressure on departmental workloads. It seems the Prime Minister may be forced to plough on with this bill to appease hardliners in his party.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, apart from Russia, UK will have the worst performance of all the major economies in the world next year.