UK Signs Preliminary Trade Deal With South Korea Ahead Of Brexit

Good news has been hard to come by for the UK recently, but it seems the South Korean-UK trade deal is set to continue unaffected by Brexit. The International Trade Secretary and South Korean Minister of trade signed a preliminary agreement to ensure trade continues as normal.

Good For South Korean companies

The deal, which was initially signed in July 2011, is one that has seen numerous benefits for both countries and has seen large growth over the last eight years. With Brexit on the way, there was a need to ensure that the trade deal with South Korea stands firm, considering that it generated $14.6bn in 2018.

This is the first massive deal that the UK has signed with an Asian country since the referendum in 2016. According to Mr. Liam Fox, the Secretary for International Trade, the value of trade with South Korea has doubled since the initial agreement, and that won’t change after Brexit.

The move was aimed at protecting the trading relationship between the two countries leading to more economic growth and job security. South Korea exported goods of $6.36bn in 2018 and, currently, more than 100 South Korean companies are operating in Britain.

Benefits Of Agreement

Some of the most common items of trade that are to continue in the new chapter include cars, oil, car, ship, and airplane parts.

However, there is still some uncertainty over whether Britain will manage to maintain exporting automobiles to South Korea due to the various car manufacturers that are moving their operations. The shutdown caused Britain’s economy to shrink in April by at least 0.4%, which may continue until Brexit is finalised.

Other than the usual exports, the UK and South Korea will also work on growing new technologies involving nuclear and hydrogen sources of energy. A researcher at LG Economic Research said that this move is meant to maintain the excellent trading climate regardless of the route the Brexit negotiations will take.

All of this will help to give UK investors an increased level of confidence when it comes to South Korean companies. There is still a huge amount of uncertainty about the UK’s trade relationships with the rest of the world post-Brexit. The UK government will at least know that their partnership with South Korea will be relatively unaffected.