The member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) created a group to analyze the United Kingdom‘s entry into that trade agreement.
From the beginning of 2021, the United Kingdom formally applied to join the CPTPP through a letter sent to New Zealand, which serves as the depositary of the Treaty.
On December 30, 2018, the CPTPP entered into force among the first six countries to ratify the agreement: Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore. On January 14, 2019, the validity for Vietnam began. It does not yet operate for Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia and Peru.
The creation of the group was taken at the fourth ministerial meeting of the CPTPP Commission, which took place this Tuesday and was chaired by the Minister of Japan, Yusutoshi Nishimura.
The TIPAT includes 30 chapters, with traditional disciplines such as: trade in goods, rules of origin, services, investment, among others, as well as next generation topics such as: disciplines for state-owned companies, trade and labor, trade and the environment, intellectual property and electronic commerce.
In general, the working group will have to define the terms and conditions to begin the negotiation and the eventual accession of the United Kingdom to the CPTPP.
According to the British government, the UK’s trade with the group was worth 111 billion pounds (about $ 151.8 billion) in 2019, growing 8% annually since 2016.
The Agreement would remove tariffs more quickly on UK exports, including whiskey (down from 165% to 0% in Malaysia) and cars (down to 0% in Canada by 2022, two years earlier than through the trade agreement between UK and Canada).
CPTPP
«This action reaffirms the commitment of the members of CPTPP to rules-based free trade and reiterates that this Agreement is open to any economy committed to meeting its high standards,» the Ministry of Economy said in a statement.
The ministers urged the four original signatories that have not yet ratified the CPTPP (Brunei, Chile, Malaysia and Peru) to do so as soon as possible so that they can participate in it and in future accession processes, already as parties. of the treaty.
