Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch leads UK fashion trade mission to Japan

The delegation met Japanese fashion buyers on Wednesday with support from the UK government and will showcase their products—from hand painted scarves to lab grown jewellery—at the British Embassy in Tokyo to high profile Japanese influencers including Yu Masui, the department of business and trade said in a press release.

The visit seeks to increase exports of UK luxury brands to the Japanese market, as part of the business and trade secretary’s mission to hit £1 trillion worth of UK exports by 2030. In 2022, UK fashion goods exports to Japan totalled £133 million, which the department aims to boost even further.

“I’m delighted to be travelling to Japan with iconic British brands to bang the drum for UK business, and help more companies take full advantage of the opportunities on offer from our free trade deals such as the UK-Japan agreement and CPTPP. The G7 trade summit gives me the opportunity to continue to champion free and fair trade on behalf of UK PLC, helping remove barriers to trade, strengthen supply chains and ensure the global trade rules work for British businesses,” said Badenoch.

The business and trade secretary will also represent the UK at the G7 Trade Ministerial Meeting in Osaka, where she will advocate for free and fair trade and discuss the challenges countries face in diversifying supply chains to meet the needs of the future. During the two-day programme, Badenoch is expected to meet with her counterparts including Yasutoshi Nishimura, Katherine Tai, and EU commissioner Dombrovkis.

Badenoch will host a free trade agreement (FTA) committee with foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa where she will look to further deepen the UK’s trading relations with Japan, building on the FTA signed in 2020. This has benefitted British businesses by simplifying the rules of origin and low-zero tariffs, removing significant barriers to trade, supporting businesses to export their goods to the upcoming market.

This follows the UK Prime Minister’s meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in May to agree the Hiroshima Accord. The agreement sets out UK’s intention to work together on global security, resilience, and innovation issues. The country's trade relationship is strong with total UK exports to Japan amounted to £13.9 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q1 2023, an increase of 9.9 per cent on the previous year.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)