Brexit: Liz Truss discusses benefits of UK joining the CPTPP
Just over a year since the UK officially left the EU, it has applied to one of the world’s most ambitious free trading areas. The CPTPP is made up of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Covering an astonishing 500 million people, should the UK be accepted into the CPTPP, critics have noted it will be more difficult to reach as opposed to neighbouring markets in Europe.
However, Sean King, an Asia policy expert, told Express.co.uk that the UK’s inclusion in the CPTPP could create one of the world’s most “formidable forces”.
This would be if the US, under new President Joe Biden, decided to follow the UK and apply to join.
His predecessor, Donald Trump, pulled out of what was then called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which with the inclusion of the US, accounted for 40 percent of global GDP and 20 percent of global trade.
Even after the US left, the CPTPP represented around 13 percent of global GDP, more than the eurozone’s five largest economies combined, according to a Royal Bank of Canada report.
UK news: Britain could be joined by the US in the CPTPP trading-bloc behemoth (Image: GETTY)
Lizz Truss: The International Trade Secretary announced the UK’s plans last week (Image: GETTY)
Mr King last year said the CPTPP would “love to have the UK in” it for “political purposes” and explained how it would “benefit the UK for its own political purposes, the issue of China, and economic needs”.
He said: “Together with the UK and US as new entries, it really would be a formidable force.
“Right off the bat you’d have the number one and number three largest economies, the US and Japan, and then you add to that Britain.
“It would really set the standards, it would be the highest of high-grade trade agreements.”
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CPTPP: The bloc is made up of 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as South America (Image: GETTY)
Mr Biden is known to be against the UK’s leaving the EU.
He believed in a UK that was a part of the bloc that acted as a bridge between the US and Europe.
However, the President will be more keen than ever to rekindle his country’s relationship with Britain following the EU’s controversial mega-investment deal with China, purported to be worth £176billion.
This flies in the face of everything that the Biden administration has set itself up for: To deal with the China problem and curb President Xi Jinping’s global influence.
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Joe Biden: The President might be persuaded to joining the bloc if the UK is accepted (Image: GETTY)
Trade: Lizz Truss securing a UK-Japan trade deal last year, Japan is regarded as spearheading CPTPP (Image: GETTY)
According to reports, Mr Biden’s team has already reached out to Prime Minister Boris Johnson about teaming up to prevent Beijing “controlling” new technology, as was seen with Huawei and 5G.
The CPTPP, then, many have noted, offers Mr Biden a way to deal with the UK with other like-minded countries on the issue of trade.
Encouragingly, he has expressed interest in the CPTPP.
He said in 2019 that Mr Trump’s pulling the US out of the TPP allowed China to take up “the driver’s seat”.
Commonwealth: Many of the CPTPP members are also part of the Commonwealth (Image: Express Newspapers)
He added: “That’s not good for our national security or for our workers.
“TPP wasn’t perfect but the idea behind it was a good one: to unite countries around high standards for workers, the environment, intellectual property, and transparency, and use our collective weight to curb China’s excesses.”
Meanwhile, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has talked of the long-view the Government has in wanting to join the CPTPP.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show of the burgeoning Asian-Pacific markets calling out for trade with Britain, something which was near-impossible within the EU.
Boris Johnson: The PM will be keen to forge a partnership with the US post-Brexit (Image: GETTY)
Ms Truss said: “In future it’s going to be Asia-Pacific countries in particular where the big markets are, where growing middle-class markets are, for British products.
“Of course British businesses will have to reach out and take these opportunities, but what I’m doing is I’m creating the opportunities, the low tariffs, removing those barriers so they can go out and do that.”
— to www.express.co.uk
