On 20 January 2021 the UK Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, announced that the UK intended to formally submit its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (“CPTPP“).
The CPTPP is a multilateral free trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Discussions have been ongoing between the CPTPP members and the UK on the UK’s potential accession since 17 June 2020. The UK’s membership would be the first accession to the CPTPP since the treaty entered into force in 2018. Since 2009, trade between the UK and the CPTPP countries has grown on average by 6% every year and was worth over £112bn in 2019.
The UK has already agreed bilateral “trade continuity agreements” with Canada, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam, and a bespoke free trade agreement with Japan. Membership of the CPTPP would go beyond these existing free trade agreements by offering tariff-free access to Australia, Brunei, Malaysia and New Zealand, and providing for a common framework for trade with all CPTPP members.
A full list of the free trade agreements that the UK has been concluded with non-EU countries, and those that are in progress, can be found here.
