EU rejects protectionism in huge trade deal with Japan

John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, said the EU-Japan deal was a “rebuff to the US attempts to move away from the multilateral order to an order based on the principle of might being right”. 

He added: “If we are looking at the prospect of a full-blown trade war, then these free-trade deal benefits are nothing compared with the costs of the tariffs going up from the US because it is such a hub of the global economy.”

Mr Springford said that Britain was trying to “roll over” free-trade agreements between the EU and other countries while it enters a transition period after it officially exits the EU on March 29.