British foods awaiting protected status in Japan despite Liz Truss promise

A Melton Mowbray pork pie. Truss promised that as part of the trade deal with Japan a host of British food brands would be newly recognised in Tokyo by May 2021. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

A host of famous British food types, including Cornish pasties, Welsh lamb and Melton Mowbray pork pies, have not been given formal protection from imitation in Japan nearly three years after Liz Truss boasted that they could be secured thanks to her “historic” trade deal.

As trade secretary, Truss described the post-Brexit trade agreement signed with Japan in September 2020 as the UK’s first landmark deal as an independent trading nation, ensuring the same tariff arrangements as the country had enjoyed when in the EU.