Secretary of State for International Trade and Chairman of the Board for Trade, Minister for Women and Equality Kemi Badenoch leaves 10 Downing Street.
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LONDON – UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badoch formally signed the treaty confirming accession to the massive Indo-Pacific bloc CPTPP, the country’s biggest post-Brexit trade deal to date.
Signed on Sunday in Latest Zealand, the deal will now come under parliamentary scrutiny in the UK, while other CPTPP countries can even complete their very own legislative processes. The UK government has said that over 99% of current UK goods exported to CPTPP countries will soon qualify for zero tariffs.
11-member A comprehensive and progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, amongst others. The UK can be the first European country to join the bloc, which the government says would unlock trade in a region with a complete GDP of £12 trillion ($15.7 trillion).
It stays to be seen to what extent the deal actually advantages the UK’s growth prospects. Based on the government’s own estimates, the deal will raise the long-term national GDP by only 0.08%, which may have little impact on offsetting losses in European trade consequently of Brexit. The UK officially left the EU on January 31, 2020.
Badoch said on Sunday that Britain was using its status as an independent trading nation to join an “exciting, growing, forward-looking trading bloc”.
“[It] will help boost the UK economy and create the a whole bunch of hundreds of jobs that CPTPP corporations are already supporting across the country,” she said in a press release. One in 100 UK staff was employed by a firm based in the nation’s CPTPP, according to the government citing 2019 figures.
Badoch added that the deal “will open up tremendous opportunities and unparalleled access to a market of greater than 500 million people.”
The trade pact evolved from the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which originated in the United States but fell apart after former President Donald Trump resigned from US involvement.
Sean McGuire, director of Europe at the Confederation of British Industry, said the deal, together with the UK’s external and strategic global trade programme, has “the potential to drive export-led growth in critical sectors reminiscent of services and green tech, whilst also increasing resilience our supply chains.
“As one among the world’s largest deals, covering a few of the world’s most dynamic markets, UK corporations might be on the lookout for recent trade and investment opportunities,” it said in an emailed statement.
— Sumathi Bala of CNBC contributed to this text.