Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership: Conclusion of Substantive Negotiations

The Department for Business and Trade is delighted to announce the conclusion of substantive negotiations to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

After over 21 months of intense talks with members, the UK has successfully concluded negotiations to join CPTPP, including finalising bilateral market access negotiations with all ratified parties and successfully demonstrating our compliance with the agreement’s high standards. We have taken our time to negotiate a deal that will bring significant benefits to the UK, creating opportunities for our businesses while deepening our global trading links.

Joining will cement deeper multilateral relations with CPTPP parties while strengthening international trade. It will see us build closer ties with CPTPP nations as the world economy increasingly focuses on the dynamic Indo-Pacific region, taking the agreement from regional to truly global. This is a key aim of the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy and will help the UK engage further with the region, both on trade and from a wider foreign policy perspective.

CPTPP membership offers the opportunity to work with parties to advance our mutual ambitions. It will allow us to further promote the rules based international system and set high standards. The potential expansion of the agreement will increase the UK’s reach and influence on global trade.

CPTPP membership will create exciting new opportunities for UK businesses in key sectors. UK companies will enjoy enhanced market access to a market of over 500 million people, with a GDP of £9 trillion.

More than 99% of current UK goods exports to CPTPP members will be eligible for tariff-free trade once we have joined. Our agricultural producers stand to benefit as joining could see the UK’s world class food and drink industry exporting more of its high-quality produce to some of the world’s biggest markets.

Our exporters will also benefit from customs facilitation provisions. These will enable closer co-operation between border authorities. This will result in faster and more efficient processes for moving goods between the UK and CPTPP members.

Beyond tariffs and customs procedures, CPTPP will offer opportunities to firms for the diversification of supply chains and allow them to trade more easily across the Indo-Pacific region. Provisions within the agreement rules will allow our companies to take advantage of ambitious commitments on tariff liberalisation.

It is not just goods exporters who will gain from CPTPP membership. The UK’s world-leading services firms will be able to make the most of CPTPP’s ambitious digital provisions. The modern rules in the agreement will ensure greater levels of transparency in the sector while reducing barriers for UK companies looking to maximise their opportunities for growth in the Indo-Pacific region.