Could the Japan trade deal offer a shortcut to a UK-US agreement?

The news over the last few days has been a tale of three trade negotiations. First came the threatened collapse of the trade talks with the EU over plans to override the Withdrawal Agreement. This was followed by a statement from Nancy Pelosi (the Speaker of the House of Representatives) that there could be no UK-USA trade deal unless the Irish question was sorted. And finally, the successful conclusion of the UK-Japan trade negotiations. Although relatively small in comparison to existing trade with the EU, this negotiation at least gives some direction to how the UK’s trade position might evolve.

A key part of the Japanese agreement was that Japan would support the UK’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). This is a trade agreement between eleven countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) which evolved from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement which was signed in 2016 but from which the USA withdrew under president Trump’s America First strategy.