British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Culham Science Center near Oxford, west London March 30, 2023. JACOB KING / AFP
After twenty-one months of negotiations, London has landed its biggest trade deal since Brexit. The UK announced on Friday March 31st that it would join the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Partnership.
It is the first country in Europe to join the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), which will include 12 countries for a GDP of £11,000 billion (€12,500 billion), Downing Street underlines in an explanation . The bloc unites 500 million people and 15% of world GDP with the UK. London and CPTPP member countries must now complete the final legal and administrative steps before the agreement is officially signed later this year.
Underlining that the UK would not have been able to join this partnership had it still been a member of the European Union (EU), Downing Street praised the way the country is ‘taking the chances’ of its ‘new post-Brexit -Utilized commercials “have liberties” while pending the benefits of getting off the block.
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Exemptions from customs duties
More than 99% of UK exports of goods to CPTPP countries are exempt from tariffs, finds Downing Street, which cites flagship products as cheese, cars, chocolate, machines or even gin and whiskey. The service sector will also benefit from the reduction in bureaucracy. Eventually, the contribution to the UK economy would reach £1.8 billion (€2.04 billion), according to London estimates.
“This agreement demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. By joining the CPTPP, the UK places itself “at the center of a group of dynamic and growing Pacific economies,” he said, quoted in the press release. “British companies are now benefiting from unrivaled access to markets from Europe to the South Pacific,” he added.
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Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch highlighted the job benefits for UK businesses and access to a wider gateway to the Indo-Pacific region, where “the bulk of global growth is expected to come from”.
The agreement between London and Washington is faltering
Since effectively leaving the EU and the single European market on January 1, 2021, the UK has sought to forge comprehensive trade deals to boost its international trade. London has concluded trade agreements with the EU and other European countries in particular, but also with more distant countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Discussions with India or Canada are ongoing. On the other hand, the agreement with the USA that the British were hoping for is long overdue and negotiations with Washington are stalling.
Signed primarily by New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Japan, the CPTPP is the most important free trade agreement in the region. Former US President Donald Trump announced on January 23, 2017 that his country would withdraw from the agreement, to which his country was initially bound, before it came into force – which has been happening gradually since December 2018.
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The UK applied to join the CPTPP in February 2021. Negotiations began in June of the same year. Last November, Rishi Sunak said his country must “take the time” to negotiate good trade deals with its post-Brexit partners, contrary to his predecessors’ desire to strike such deals quickly.