 CPTPP Signatories United Kingdom Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories | |
| Type | Free Trade Agreement andEconomic Integration Agreement |
|---|---|
| Signed | 16 July 2023 |
| Location | Auckland, New Zealand andBandar Seri Begawan, Brunei |
| Effective | 10 Australia Brunei Chile Japan Malaysia New Zealand Peru Singapore United Kingdom Vietnam |
| Condition | 60 days after ratification by the UK and all 11 (or 15 months after signature by 6) CPTPP members |
| Signatories | |
| Depositary | Government of New Zealand |
| Languages | |
The accession of the United Kingdom to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has been on the current agenda for the enlargement of theCPTPP since 2 June 2021, when the CPTPP Commission decided to move forward with the application of theUnited Kingdom as an aspirant economy.[1] The United Kingdom officially applied for CPTPP membership on 1 February 2021.[2] Accession negotiations between the UK and the 11 current CPTPP members negotiations were concluded on 31 March 2023.[3][4][5] The UK formally signed the accession protocol on 16 July 2023.[6] The UK and at least 6 of the 11 existing member nations will need toratify the accession protocol before it takes effect.[7] TheUK Government expected the entry into force to take place in the second half of 2024. On 29 August 2024, the UK government announced the agreement is expected to enter into force on 15 December 2024, after securing the final ratification required for membership.[8][9]
TheUK became the first non-original member and European country to join CPTPP. Following the UK's accession application, seven countries have applied to join CPTPP:China,Costa Rica,Ecuador,Indonesia,Taiwan,Ukraine, andUruguay.[10][11]
Following itswithdrawal from theEuropean Union on 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom began negotiations on severalfree trade agreements to remove or reducetariff andnon-tariff barriers to trade, both to establish new agreements and to replace previousEU trade agreements. Withdrawal ended 47 years ofmembership during which all its trading agreements were negotiated by theEuropean Commission on behalf of the bloc. The UK did not actually withdraw from theEuropean Single Market and theEuropean Union Customs Union (and its trade agreements) until 31 December 2020.
Following its failure to secure aUnited Kingdom–United States free trade agreement, Britain had been reportedly interested in joining several multilateral free trade agreements includingUSMCA.[12][13] In January 2018, thegovernment of the United Kingdom stated it was exploring membership of the CPTPP to stimulate exports afterBrexit and has held informal discussions with several of the members.[14]
In October 2018,Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe said he would welcome the United Kingdom joining the partnership post-Brexit.[15] In a jointTelegraph article withSimon Birmingham,David Parker, andChan Chun Sing, the trade ministers of Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, UKSecretary of State for Trade,Liz Truss, expressed the United Kingdom's intent to join the CPTPP.[16] The UK Department for Trade's chief negotiatorCrawford Falconer helped lead the New Zealand negotiations for the predecessorTrans-Pacific Partnership before leaving theMinistry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2012.[17]
In June 2020, the government of the United Kingdom issued a policy paper[18] reaffirming the UK's position on accession to the CPTPP. There were three reasons given:
Furthermore, theBritish government stated that in 2019, eachregion andconstituent country of the United Kingdom exported at least £1 billion ($1.25 billion) worth of goods to CPTPP member countries.[19] The UK government also highlighted that British companies held close to £98 billion worth of investments in CPTPP countries in 2018[20] and that in 2019, the UK did more than £110 billion ($137 billion) worth of trade with countries in the CPTPP free trade area.[21] In December 2020 the UK'sSecretary of State for TradeLiz Truss further expressed her desire for the UK to formally apply in early 2021.[22] In a speech, held on 20 January 2021, Truss announced the UK planned to submit an application for participation "shortly".[23] In October 2020 the United Kingdom and Japan already signed theUK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which was a roll over of the agreement between the EU and Japan.
The British government had not produced animpact assessment explaining or quantifying the benefits it expects for theUK economy from accession to CPTPP.[24] It has been disputed whether accession is worth pursuing for economic reasons.[25] Farmer, environmental and consumer groups, and theScottish government, raised concerns that the UK government would need to agree to lowering standards on pesticides, pig welfare and food labelling.[26][27]
On 1 February 2021, the United Kingdom formally applied to join CPTPP.[2] The UK is the first non-founding country to apply to join the CPTPP. If successful, Britain would become the second largest CPTPP economy, after Japan.[28]Japan had expressed support for the UK's potential entry into CPTPP in 2018,[29]and as 4th CPTPP Commission (2021) chair, Japan's minister in charge of negotiations on the trade pact,Yasutoshi Nishimura, expressed hope on Twitter that Britain will "demonstrate its strong determination to fully comply with high-standard obligations" of the free trade accord, and mentioned that "I believe that the UK's accession request will have a great potential to expand the high-standard rules beyond the Asia-Pacific."[30]
In June 2021, the CPTPP states agreed to open accession talks. A working group was established to discuss tariffs and rules governing investment and trade. The United Kingdom was forecast to accede to the CPTPP at 2022 at the earliest.[31]
Prior to its withdrawal, the United Kingdom had agreed to 36free trade agreements withcountries andtrade blocs, the majority of which entered force on 1 January 2021.[32] 33 of these free trade agreements were continuity agreements. These used amutatis mutandis concept to quickly replicate the existing EU agreements, only having to call out those minor areas of differentiation.[33][34] This meant that the UK had continuity free trade agreements with 6 CPTPP members, these were:Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru,Singapore, andVietnam.
The UK and Japan had also signed theComprehensive Economic Partnership agreement in October 2020 which was mostly based onJapan–European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, but was branded as "marking an historic moment" as the "UK's first major trade deal as an independent trading nation".[35][36] In addition, two further new agreements were signed withAustralia, on 17 December 2021, andNew Zealand, on 28 February 2022.[37][38] This meant that the UK had free trade agreements signed with all members of CPTPP, except forBrunei andMalaysia, by the end of February 2022.
On 18 February 2022, confirmation came from theJapanese government, as Chair of the United Kingdom's Accession Working Group on behalf of the CPTPP members, that the UK had moved into the second (and final) 'market access' phase of negotiations with the CPTPP.[39]
On 31 March 2023, the United Kingdom concluded negotiations to join the CPTPP, as the 11 members reached an agreement to Britain's accession.[3][4] Each of the existing member nations will need to ratify the UK's addition to the partnership before it takes effect.[7]
The United Kingdom negotiated on behalf of theCrown Dependencies and theBritish Overseas Territories during free trade agreement discussions. On 31 March 2023, the UK government announced it had secured an extension mechanism, which could extend the whole agreement to any Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory.[40] On the same day,Guernsey andJersey confirmed their intentions to participate in CPTPP.[41][42] In May 2023, a UK government spokesman confirmed that "the deal will cover goods trade between the Crown Dependencies and CPTPP countries, with a mechanism to include trade in services in future."[43]
On 17 April 2023 on the occasion ofG7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting inKaruizawa, Foreign Secretary,James Cleverly attended a bilateral meeting withJapan's Minister for Foreign Affairs,Yoshimasa Hayashi. The two ministers affirmed to continue advancing the UK's accession process to the CPTPP, and they engaged in a candid discussion from a strategic perspective.[44]
The United Kingdom formally signed the CPTPP accession protocol during the ministerial meeting of members in New Zealand on 16 July 2023.[45][6]
After theUK became a signatory on 16 July 2023, the accession protocol allowed 15 months for each member nation to ratify the agreement, which would then take effect 60 days later. Member nations, consequently, had until 16 October 2024 to ratify. The protocol could have entered into force in one of two ways:
The agreement has been ratified by the latter process and therefore entered into force on 15 December 2024 with eight (8) countries.Australia became a party to the agreement on 24 December 2024.Canada andMexico will become parties to the agreement 60 days after they ratify the protocol.[46][47][9][48]
| Event | Date | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Application submitted | 1 February 2021 | [2] |
| Accession process opened | 2 June 2021 | [1] |
| Negotiations concluded | 31 March 2023 | [4][5] |
| Formal signature | 16 July 2023 | [49][45][6] |
| Existing member ratifications | 9 / 11 | [8][48] |
| UK domestic ratification | 15 May 2024 | [50] |
| UK deposition of accession instrument | 16 May 2024 | [48] |
| Full membership | 15 December 2024 | [9] |
| Signatory | Ratified | Institution |  |  | AB | Deposited | Effective | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 9 October 2024 | House of Representatives | Majority approval (Standing vote) | 25 October 2024 | 24 December 2024 | [51][8][48] | ||
| 10 October 2024 | Senate | Majority approval (Standing vote) | ||||||
| 24 October 2024 | Royal assent | Granted | ||||||
| Brunei | 16 October 2024 | No parliamentary approval required | 16 October 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [8][48][52] | |||
 Canada | House of Commons | |||||||
| Senate | ||||||||
| Royal assent | ||||||||
| Chile | 3 April 2024 | No congressional approval required | 3 April 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [8][48] | |||
| Japan | 20 November 2023 | House of Representatives | Majority approval (Standing vote) | 15 December 2023 | 15 December 2024 | [53][54][55][8] | ||
| 6 December 2023 | House of Councillors | Majority approval (Standing vote) | ||||||
| Malaysia | 17 September 2024 | Cabinet of Malaysia | 17 September 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [56][57][58][8] | |||
 Mexico | Senate | |||||||
| Presidential Assent | ||||||||
| New Zealand | 4 June 2024 | No parliamentary approval required | 4 June 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [59][8] | |||
| Peru | 20 August 2024 | President | Granted | 28 August 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [60][61][48][8] | ||
| Singapore | 17 January 2024 | No parliamentary approval required | 17 January 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [62][63][8][48] | |||
| Vietnam | 25 June 2024 | National Assembly | 459 | 0 | 1 | 1 August 2024 | 15 December 2024 | [64][48][8] |
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act To Enable the implementation of, and the making of other provision in connection with, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2024 c. 6 |
| Introduced by | Kemi Badenoch,Business Secretary (Commons) Lord Johnson,Minister of State for Investment (Lords) |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 20 March 2024 |
Status: Partly in force | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
In an article published on 4 November 2023 in the UK newspaper theDaily Express, the UK Business and Trade SecretaryKemi Badenoch confirmed that the process of ratification for CPTPP accession was to commence shortly – stating that "in the coming weeks, we will bring forward a Bill to confirm our membership of CPTPP and ensure businesses can start seizing the historic opportunities the deal offers."[65]
On 7 November, the UK government (via a proclamation fromKing Charles III) announced in theState Opening of Parliament that a bill would be brought forward to ratify the UK's accession to the CPTPP – saying that "My ministers will take steps to make the economy more competitive, taking advantage of freedoms afforded by the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, a bill will be brought forward to promote trade and investment with economies in the fastest growing region in the world."[66]
The name of the bill was confirmed in press briefings ahead of the King's Speech to be the "Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill"[67][68]
The fact that an Act of Parliament is required in order to bring effect to the CPTPP accession, means that there are clauses agreed to within the accession protocol that require primary legislation in order to bring the agreement fully into place. This means that the accession protocol itself, as well as the CPTPP Bill, will need to pass through Parliament in order to complete the ratification process. And the bill completed all the parliamentary stages and received Royal Assent on 20 March 2024.[68]
As part of the Trade Act 2021, and as amended into the Agriculture Act 2020, the UK government must ensure that two reports are produced prior to commencing theCRaG process of treaty ratification:
The TAC were formally requested to commence work on the CPTPP report on 17 July 2023, with an expected delivery date of the report of no later than 30 November 2023.[69]
On 15 May 2024, the Instrument of Accession to the CPTPP was signed and sealed byForeign SecretaryDavid Cameron.[50]
On 16 May 2024, theUnited Kingdom completed the formal ratification of its accession to CPTPP, and deposited its instrument of accession inNew Zealand.[48][70]
Timeline
| Signatory | Application | Negotiations | Signature | Institution | Passed | | | AB | Deposited | Effective | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 February 2021 | Opened | 2 June 2021 | 16 July 2023 | House of Lords | 23 January 2024 | Majority approval (Voice vote) | 16 May 2024 | 8 of 11: 15 December 2024 9 of 11: 24 December 2024 | [71][72][68][73][48][9] | ||
| Concluded | 31 March 2023 | House of Commons | 19 March 2024 | Majority approval (Voice vote) | ||||||||
| Royal assent | 20 March 2024 | Granted | ||||||||||
The United Kingdom attended its first CPTPP meeting after signing the accession protocol on 15 November 2023 inCalifornia, on the sidelines of the30thAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit inSan Francisco.[74][75]
Domestic economists and media outlets criticised Prime MinisterRishi Sunak's assertion that CPTPP "demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms", citing theInternational Agreements Committee report that states that the percentage increase in theUnited Kingdom's GDP provided by CPTPP membership is only 0.08%.[76][77][78] Economist Sam Lowe also pointed out that this figure is low due to the UK already having bilateral free trade agreements with all member states, with the exceptions ofBrunei andMalaysia.[79] In a report released with the2023 Autumn statement, theOffice for Budget Responsibility calculated that Britain's economy would gain just 0.04% to GDP in the "long run", which it defined as after 15 years of membership.[80] Trade expert David Henig stated that benefits from Britain's accession to the trade bloc impact had been "hugely overhyped", adding that "some companies will benefit, but the effects will be very small".[81]
Business and Trade Committee chairLiam Byrne criticised the Government for "dodging" scrutiny of the UK's accession to CPTPP, demandingMPs should have had more time to debate the treaty.[82]
In contrast, theCentre for European Reform estimated that the costs of leaving the European Union have reduced the UK's GDP by 5.5%, provoking criticism from prominent media outlets as to the extent of the benefits of CPTPP, particularly as an alternative to theEuropean Economic Area.[83][84] However, due to the high growth of the UK economy in comparison toGermany between 2016 and 2022, these estimates have been repudiated by Brexit advocates.[85] In March 2024, theOffice for Budget Responsibility (OBR) reported that the UK is "broadly on track" to show a 4% reduction in the UK economy's potential productivity, as well as a 15% fall in trade compared to if the UK had stayed within the EU, maintaining its estimation despite facing criticism from Brexit supporters as being overly pessimistic; the OBR noted that growth in UK goods trade is well below other advanced economies and 10% down on 2019 levels at the end of 2023.[86] TheNational Institute of Economic and Social Research estimated that the negative impact of Brexit gradually escalates, reaching some 5-6 per cent of GDP or about £2,300 per capita by 2035.[87] Trade Journalist Alan Beattie states that the 5 per cent of GDP long-run cost of leaving the EU single market and customs union is not compensated by trade agreements such as CPTPP, regardless of who joins it in the future, pointing out that the long run collective gain of CPTPP, theAustralia, andNew Zealand deals are worth just 0.2 per cent to UK GDP. Beattie argues that CPTPP, and any future trade agreement, that create obstacles to realigning with theEuropean single market are harmful to theeconomy of the United Kingdom in the long term.[88]
Environmental campaigners criticised the UK government for agreeing to eliminate all importtariffs onpalm oil fromMalaysia, a product blamed for widespreaddeforestation, prompting outrage fromgreen campaigners.[89][90] The British government's decision violates the United Kingdom'sCOP27pledge to end deforestation by 2030, which it had committed to less than a year prior inGlasgow.[91][92]
Further concerns were raised by trade unions over clauses in the deal that will allow large companies to sue the UK government behind closed doors if they believe their profits have suffered from changes tolaws or regulations. TheTUC'sgeneral secretary,Paul Nowak, noted that these clauses could allow large companies to sue on grounds such as an increase in theminimum wage or bringingenergy companies back intopublic ownership.[93]
In March 2023, BritishSecretary of State for Business and TradeKemi Badenoch argued Britain's decision to join the CPTPP gives it a strengthened presence and influence in the Asia-Pacific region which is rapidly growing in significance botheconomically andpolitically.[94] Additionally, Badenoch also claimed the deal is the most significantcommercial agreement signed by the UK since Brexit, with a potential to grow in importance as the rise of Pacific Rim countries continues, with applications fromChina andTaiwan highlighting further market opportunities that Britain could gain access to through CPTPP.[76][95]
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