Japan and Europe: Finding a Path after Brexit – The View from Gellért Hill 2020/3

The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020. The transition period that follows the withdrawal is the short but crucial period of time during which not only the UK but the whole world must find answers to questions related to the positions of the British economy in global trade, the future perspectives of EU-UK economic relations and also the standing of an EU that just lost one of its member states in global trade relations. These are problems that carry relevance everywhere in our interconnected world, but perhaps especially in Japan, one of the economic powerhouses of Asia.

In this episode of The View from Gellert Hill, IFAT research fellow Barnabas Szabo was trying to find elements of answers to these questions through a discussion with Ambassador Shotaro Oshima, Chairman of the Institute for International Economic Studies in Japan, Ambassador Zoltán Sűdy, former ambassador of Hungary to Tokyo, and IFAT deputy director Tamás Baranyi. Topics of discussion included the history of British-Japanese economic relations, the future potential in EU-Japan relations, and the thorny question whether the EU and the UK will have to be competitors when trying to intensify their economic cooperation with Japan.