“British companies will now have unprecedented access to markets from Europe to the South Pacific,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. — © AB
After 21 months of negotiations, London announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement to join the CPTPP Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, the biggest trade deal since Brexit.
Source: Belga
The UK will become the first European country to join the CPTPP, Downing Street said in a statement. Currently, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam have signed the agreement.
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“British companies will now have unprecedented access to markets from Europe to the South Pacific,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. In the long term, he added, the merger would add £1.8 billion (about €2 billion) to the country’s economic output.
The United States is not a signatory country. The country, under President Barack Obama, was the driving force behind the trade agreement, once known as the TPP, that would act as a counterweight to China’s economic power. However, his successor, Donald Trump, showed no interest and ended the negotiations. Current US President Joe Biden has also shown no interest in joining the deal.
