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LONDON: The UK will apply to join the Pacific Free Trade Area, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the UK said on Saturday (January 30), under its post-Brexit plans.
Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will formally apply for UK membership in the free trade bloc on Monday, representing 11 Pacific Rim countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico and Vietnam.
The application to join the CPTPP will come a year after Britain formally left the European Union after more than 40 years of membership.
Negotiations between the UK and the association are expected to start this year, the trade department said.
“One year after our departure to the EU, we are forging new partnerships that will bring huge economic benefits to the people of Great Britain,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“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 around the world and to be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade,” he added.
READ: Japan aims to expand CPTPP trade pact as UK and Chinese eye members
Truss, who has touted the prospect of British membership of the bloc as the UK agreed to post-Brexit trade deals with Japan and Canada among other CPTPP members, said joining would offer “enormous opportunities.”
“It will mean lower rates for automakers and whiskey producers, and better access for our brilliant service providers, leading to quality jobs and greater prosperity for people here at home,” he added.
The CPTPP was launched in 2019 to remove trade barriers between the 11 nations representing nearly 500 million consumers in the Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to counter China’s growing economic influence.
The United States, a leading proponent of the Pacific bloc under former President Barack Obama, withdrew from the association under the Trump administration before it was ratified in 2017.
