Photo/Illutration Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in video conference June 9 with British International Trade Secretary Liz Truss on final details of a new trade agreement between the two countries (Pool)

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi plans to visit Britain as early as August to negotiate the finishing touches to a new trade deal between the two countries.

It would be the first overseas trip by a Cabinet member since Finance Minister Taro Aso's Feb. 21-24 visit to Saudi Arabia, according to the Cabinet Secretariat.

Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet have held off on overseas business travel since the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic.

“We need to flesh out details of the trade deal under negotiation” between Tokyo and London, Motegi said at a news conference on July 17, referring to the time lapse in  the Japan-U.S. trade pact taking effect in January even though it was agreed to last August and took effect in January.

Motegi will meet with International Trade Secretary Liz Truss for talks on the Japan-British trade agreement.

Tokyo and London began the final phase of the trade deal in June.

Both sides are hoping to clinch the agreement this summer and bring it into force by the year-end if possible.

Earlier this month, London moved to exempt Japanese entering Britain from two weeks of self-quarantine.

In contrast, Japanese returning to Japan from Britain are requested to self-isolate at home or elsewhere for two weeks as a precautionary measure against a further spread of the virus.

The Foreign Ministry is now pondering how to deal with Motegi after his return from Britain based on the way the Japanese government handled U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun’s visit to Japan on July 9-10 after his trip to South Korea.

When the U.S. diplomat visited to discuss the situation in North Korea, the government restricted his means of transportation and where he could stay and obliged him to undergo a diagnostic test before and after his arrival in Japan.

As an exceptional measure, restrictions were eased for Biegun although the government basically denies entry of foreign nationals from the United States and South Korea.

“I gather that Motegi will not be subject to a two-week quarantine,” a senior official with the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

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