The EU may want to impose heavy taxes on scotch whisky and single malt after Brexit

Trade specialists have raised doubts about the prime minister’s plan to “carry over” the EU’s trade deals with more than 50 countries, saying that many of them will use Brexit to push for extra concessions.

Theresa May made the comments in Japan, with whom the EU recently completed its largest free trade agreement to date. She said the government was looking at the possibility of having such deals “brought over . . . into trade deals with the UK” to provide certainty for businesses.

However, trade specialists cautioned that replicating the deals would not be simple because other countries would push for additional concessions and because dividing agricultural quotas with the EU could prove controversial.

South Africa’s trade minister said this year that he would