UK membership would enhance trade with CPTPP nations, including Chile, by opening up new markets and opportunities for UK businesses
The UK government is formally applying to join one of the world’s largest free-trade areas, to position the UK at the heart of emerging economies in the Pacific and support jobs across the UK.
UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss spoke with Ministers in Japan and New Zealand on Monday morning (1 February 2021) to request to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the first formal step before negotiations start later this year.
UK membership would enhance trade with CPTPP nations, including Chile, by opening up new markets and opportunities for UK businesses while encouraging greater inward investment and strengthening the UK’s ties with the Indo-Pacific region and the Americas.
Membership would also help the UK go further and faster in areas like digital trade and services. Last year trade from the UK to CPTPP member nations in these fields hit £18.7 billion and joining now would create an opportunity to unleash other sectors of the UK’s economy.
The UK’s accession would increase CPTPP’s combined GDP from £9 trillion to £11 trillion. Last year, trade between the UK and the 11 member countries was worth more than £111 billion and has grown on average at 8% each year since 2016.
More specifically, trade between the UK and the three Latin American CPTPP member countries was over £7 billion in the final four quarters to the second quarter of 2020, (Chile £1.8 billion, Mexico £4.5 billion, Peru £764 million) and its accession will increase its opportunities in the fastest growing sectors in these countries: agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences and in a vast majority of other sectors such as automotive, food and drink, mining, digital and financial services.
The UK’s membership to CPTPP is a key part of the UK’s Government’s plan to position the UK at the centre of a network of modern free trade deals that drive jobs and economic growth.
UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said:
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said
Spencer Mahony, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Latin America and the Caribbean, said:
Notes to Editors