I know you so love to burn the Beeb, but I didn't see the Mail or Express, or any of the other right-leaning rags light up their front pages with it either.
// The new deal is very similar to the existing EU-Japan deal //
So we copy and paste EU deals onto UK notepaper and sign them. It should be very easy to do this with all our trading partners. Makes a bit of a mockery of UK independence though.
And of course I doubt that Japan is expecting unrestricted access to the UK's fishing grounds, a say over how the UK government supports its businesses and a demand that its own court arbitrates on any disputes.
//Makes a bit of a mockery of UK independence though.//
As indicated by youngmaf, the UK has the option to agree to the deal or not. There are many EU trade deals and tariffs which are detrimental to the UK. I'm sure the UK is not alone because trying to devise an agreement which will be in the best interests of 28 very disparate nations is impossible. That's why in that respect (and quite a few others) membership of the EU often means everybody gets what nobody really wants.
It seems to be a copy-paste of the deal we had with them before with a few add-ons.
I'm very glad the UK has got this - it's better to have it than not. But if anything it just shows what a huge mountain the UK has to climb in order to get back to what we had before.
The UK trade deal with Japan is practically a word for word copy of the deal it previously had through its membership of the EU. So basically, how you do it is to learn from the EU. ;-)
2016: - “EU Trade deals are good for the EU but bad for Britain, so we need to leave the EU and do our own trade deals to get a better outcome for the UK.”
2020: - “We are too stupid or lazy to improve on the EU deal, so we will just copy it and spin it as a great deal for the UK (even though it’s the same as the EU deal)”.
that's how Barnier (and his colleagues) have done it already. It's basically the same as the deal the EU already has with Japan, except for some minor changes - to Britain's detriment - in agricultural trade. Brussels' own deal with Japan contains quotas; Britain just gets to use any quotas left over by the EU.