The UK has formally signed the treaty to join a vast free trade area spanning the Indo-Pacific region, in a move the government says will be a “big boost for British businesses.”
Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch signed the accession protocol to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Auckland, New Zealand, on Sunday.
The UK is the first new member, and the first European nation, to join the bloc—comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam—since its formation in 2018.
It represents Britain’s biggest trade deal since leaving the EU, cutting tariffs for UK exporters to a group of nations which—with Britain’s membership—will have a total gross domestic product (GDP) of £12 trillion, accounting for 15 percent of global GDP, according to UK officials.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said previously that the deal “will help us unlock the benefits of Brexit” and put Britain in a “prime position” in the global economy.
But critics say that the deal will bring about very limited benefit, as the UK already has free trade deals with all CPTPP members except Brunei and Malaysia—and some of the trade deals were rolled over from Britain’s previous EU membership.
In an impact assessment of the deal when negotiations started in 2021, Britain said the agreement is estimated to deliver an increase of just 0.08 percent to GDP over the long term.
It is thus far from making up for the losses caused by Brexit, which the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted will cut UK GDP by 4 percent.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said last month that the Tories were being “dishonest” by claiming CPTPP membership would make up for lost trade in Europe.
