UK joins 11 member Asia-Pacific CPTPP trade bloc

In its “biggest trade deal since Brexit” the UK’s membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) creates a market of more than 500 million people, worth 15% of global GDP.

Spanning Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia, CPTPP membership is expected to be ratified by the UK parliament and the bloc’s 11 member states this year.

CPTPP membership may make it more difficult for the UK to rejoin the EU customs union, but the fact that the UK will join without significant changes to EU-inherited regulations suggests that EU and CPTPP regulatory approaches may be compatible.

The UK has bilateral deals with nine of the eleven countries inside the bloc, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which minimises the benefit of the overarching agreement.

The government has highlighted 10 benefits that membership of the CPTPP will deliver.

1. Gateway to growth
CPTPP members span Asia Pacific and the Americas and is a gateway to the wider Indo-Pacific region, which will account for the majority of global growth and around half of the world’s middle-class consumers in future decades.

2. New markets for UK services providers
Red tape will be slashed and UK businesses will be operating on a par with local firms.

3. Data flows
Joining CPTPP will remove barriers on data localisation requirements, ensuring data can flow between the UK and CPTPP members.

4. Cutting tariffs on exports
99% of exports to CPTPP member countries will be eligible for zero tariffs.

5. Opportunities to diversify supply chains
British businesses can trade more freely across the bloc, so a UK automotive manufacturers could sell car engines tariff-free to a car maker in the bloc, who could then sell their cars tariff-free to another member country.

6. Benefitting the whole of the UK
Companies can reach new markets through CPTPP’s ambitious services and digital provisions.

7. Trade deal with Malaysia
Joining CPTPP means the UK will have a trade deal with Malaysia, a CPTPP member, for the first time.

8. More access to high-quality goods
Greater choice, quality and affordability and cheaper import prices for inputs to manufacturing with tariffs eliminated on a wide range of inputs.

9. Strengthening economic security
Enhanced access to more markets while trading under fair rules that will help UK businesses to compete and thrive.

10. Encouraging investment
Encouraging further investment, by guaranteeing protections for investors and supporting jobs across the UK.

As opportunities to trade with CPTPP members emerge, we have fixed price and long-term capacity agreements in place with our partner carriers across Asia, the pacific and Americas, to provide cost-effective and reliable supply chain solutions.

To discuss how our technology and global footprint could support you, EMAIL Matt Fullard to discover the options relating to your current freight profile and movements to and from CPTTP countries.