The UK is hurrying to lay the foundations for trade negotiations after it leaves the EU (Brexit). This was the objective of the tour of British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Boris Johnson to Japan on 21 July, to New Zealand on 23 July and to Australia 25-27 July, while British Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox launched a working group on UK-US trade with the US administration in Washington on 25 July in order to lay the foundations for a free trade agreement.
In Sydney on Thursday, Johnson and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop announced that the UK and Australia would boost their relations on trade, defence and intelligence-sharing.
"As we go through the process of leaving the arrangements of the European Union, we are going to widen our horizons and work even more closely. We have reaffirmed our shared goal of concluding a free trade agreement as soon as possible after we leave the EU", Johnson commented, saying that any agreement would include an "open and generous" visa regime for Australians looking to travel to the UK.
Johnson and Bishop gave few details on the impact of a trade agreement. Johnson nevertheless mentioned that there were currently Australian tariffs on Scotch whisky, "which seem to me to amount to a cruel deprivation of the Australian people of Scotch whisky at the price they could have it".
In Wellington on Tuesday, Johnson gave assurances that New Zealand would doubtless be among the first countries to tie up a trade deal with the UK. Brexit "is not, was not and will not be" synonymous with the UK turning its back on the world, he underlined.
In Washington on Tuesday, Fox meanwhile launched a UK-US working group with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. This group aims to lay the foundations for a negotiation for an "ambitious" trade agreement and Fox received a warm welcome, with US President Donald Trump announcing that work was being done on a "major" trade deal.
"Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS! The EU is very protectionist with the US. STOP!", Trump tweeted.
Talking about the new working group on US-UK trade, which is worth £168 billion a year, Fox stated that the US was the UK's biggest trading partner, and that the two countries thus had a solid basis on which to build.
With regard to investment, the US is the biggest source of UK foreign investment and the two countries have invested over $1 billion (€0.85 billion) in each other's economies, Fox's press staff stated.
UK international trade brings it nearly £700 billion (€784 billion) every year, and half of this is with the EU. The country has thus for several months been multiplying its initiatives across the Atlantic, in the Commonwealth countries and Asia, and speeding up the pace in order to respond to British Prime Minister Theresa May's desire to make the UK a leader in world trade once it has left the EU.
The road will be long for the UK which under EU membership rules is forbidden to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries until its departure from the bloc is concrete – in other words, not until March 2019.
In addition, the initiatives of the British government are accompanied by fears that it may be ready to accept significant concessions, especially on health, in order to conclude trade agreements – as illustrated by the controversy around US chlorine-treated chicken, which London is suspected of wanting to authorise.
On Tuesday, Fox did not formally deny this, saying that this practice did "not pose a problem for health". His judgment was tempered by his British colleague responsible for the environment, Michael Gove, who promised that London would not call into question its practices on animal welfare or the environment with the aim of obtaining a trade agreement. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)