LONDON: Japan and Britain are aiming to basically reach a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement by the end of this month, Britain’s lead negotiator Graham Zebedee confirmed Thursday.

“We are working very quickly. We would both like to reach an agreement around the end of this month,” Zebedee said in an online speech, adding that he is confident about doing so, although the time is limited.

His Japanese counterpart, Hiroshi Matsuura, had said in an interview published by the Financial Times last month that the two countries “must complete negotiations by the end of July,” so a bilateral trade deal can be approved by Japan’s parliament, the Diet, during its possible extraordinary session this autumn.

The Japanese and British governments are rushing to conclude a trade agreement as the transition period following Britain’s exit from the European Union is slated to end on Dec. 31.

Their trade talks, formally launched on June 9, are focused on automobile tariffs and financial services, as well as e-commerce and procedures to settle investment-related disputes.

If they reach a broad accord on a trade deal later this month, the two governments are expected to formally sign the deal in September and then put it through each country’s parliament by the end of this year.

They are considering holding additional negotiations if Britain joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the country is strongly interested in.

The agreement with Japan would likely be Britain’s first major trade deal since it left the EU in late January this year. Britain is seeing its trade negotiations with the EU run into rough waters and talks with the United States stall ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November and other political events.

JIJI Press