U.K. Favors Swiss and South Koreans in Brexit Trade Plans
- No capacity to negotiate 40 deals at once, trade official says
- Britain seeking to turn existing EU deals into bilateral ones
Commercial and residential properties stand in Zurich.
Photographer: Alessandro Della Bella/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s cut-and-paste plans for trade deals after Brexit will begin with the Swiss and South Koreans because of how much they contribute to the U.K. economy.
The Department for International Trade doesn’t have the capacity to negotiate 40 new free-trade agreements at once, so it’s focusing on rolling over deals it benefits from as a European Union member and on the ones that carry the most trade, according to a senior official at the department who declined to be identified discussing policy that hasn’t been publicly announced.