The Daily Update: Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership

Over the weekend the UK government announced it will be applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The partnership is made up of 11 nations in all, covering a market of approximately 500m people, producing more than 13 percent of the world’s income. By joining the Pacific free trade area, the UK stands to benefit from lower tariffs without deep political integration, as was the case with the European Union. The UK trade with the CPTPP members in 2019 was just over GBP110bn (8.4% of UK exports), about six times less than the business the UK conducts with the EU. The UK would be the first non-regional country to join the partnership.

The UK hopes joining the CPTPP will help deepen its strategic and economic ties to Asia, a region that will become the engine for global growth, and that is forecast to account for 50% of the global economy by 2040. The ongoing pandemic has only accelerated that trend as figures show Asia is already bouncing back from the resulting economic slump faster than the rest of the world.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was naturally upbeat about joining the partnership. In a statement he said ‘One year after our departure from the EU we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain’ adding ‘Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade’.