British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was set to arrive for a one-day meeting in Singapore on Monday as part of a four-nation tour through the Asia-Pacific region, one which also included talks with key actors such as Japan and Australia.

The fact that the head of Britain’s diplomacy undertakes this tour just one week after his country formally left the EU is not accidental.

“Now is the time to put Global Britain into action,” said Raab as he left London last week. “The Asia-Pacific region is full of opportunities and our message is that the UK is open for business.”

And although the minister was greeted with scepticism during the earlier legs of his tour and faced many questions about Britain’s future foreign policy priorities, the reality is that London is very serious about re-engaging with Asian and Pacific nations, and does treat the region as one of its chief priorities.

Undoubtedly, trade is the key current preoccupation. Under the transition terms agreed as part of the separation from the EU, Britain can continue to benefit until the end of this year from the same trade provisions the EU has negotiated with countries around the world.

But if future disruptions to trade are to be avoided, new deals between Britain and key partners have to be concluded fast.

The British approach is to suggest to its partners that they should continue trade under the terms of the agreements they have with the EU today; multilateral treaties would simply be converted into bilateral ones.

Yet that is not easy for two main reasons. The agreements which countries signed with the EU amounted to complex compromises, in which countries from outside Europe made concessions in return for certain compromises from Europe.

What can Britain bring to the table?

It does not follow that Britain has the same things to offer its partners, and it is not obvious why global partners should extend similar concessions to the Brits now.

Furthermore, the focus in free trade agreements is now shifting towards the elimination of non-tariff barriers, such as the imposition of quotas or the introduction of regulations deliberately designed to restrict trade.

But until Britain decides what kind of an agreement on regulations it will have with the EU, it is difficult for other countries to conclude deals with the British.

Still, the British have succeeded in persuading South Korea to apply its free trade agreement with the EU to its bilateral arrangements with London, and the British may have succeeded in persuading Australia as well.

With Japan, the British currently trade under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement that came into effect a year ago and hope to conclude another such agreement by the end of this year.

Raab is looking to achieve a similar objective in Singapore too. Throughout the region, the British also have to combat a perception that they are not interested in Asia or have little stake in Asian affairs.

However, London hopes that on this count, the facts will speak for themselves.

‘Engine of global growth’

Britain conducts around $147 billion worth of trade with the Asia-Pacific region excluding China, with about a quarter of this being trade with Asean nations.

Although the EU is still the destination of half of Britain’s trade, Asia as a whole now accounts for about 20 per cent of UK exports and imports, a figure actually higher in percentage terms than the trade relationship that the US has with Asia.

“The Asia-Pacific region will be an engine of global growth in the next decade and is key to the UK’s future ambitions,” British Trade Commissioner for Asia Natalie Black told the Japanese media recently.

Black, whose responsibilities extend to trade throughout Asia, is a rising star in the British governmental structure. She served previously as deputy head of the British prime minister’s policy unit and is a noted expert on cybersecurity.

Her appointment is yet another indication of where London’s priorities lie.

Other links with the region also attest to British engagement. Over two-thirds of all Asean students studying abroad choose to go to Britain, and Britain is home to about half of all the Asean citizens living in Europe. These may be less than tangible links but are just as powerful.

Raab, whose first overseas visit as Britain’s Foreign Secretary was to the Asean Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bangkok, Thailand last year, looks to Singapore for help in institutionalising and deepening Britain’s dialogue partnership with Asean, and with countries in the region.

Paradoxically, the problem is no longer one of British interest, but more of Asean’s. The grouping currently operates a moratorium on the establishment of new partnership dialogues. Still, Raab knows that, ultimately, a flourishing British relationship with the Asia-Pacific region is a project for many years ahead, if not decades.

And it is one in which Britain will continue to have to do most of the running.

THE STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK