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

Monday 17th April 2023 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kemi Badenoch)]

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.

Geostrategic aspects of CPTPP

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.

Benefits for UK business

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.

Protecting UK interests

Over the course of negotiations, the Government have taken important steps to protect our key interests. The NHS, its services and the price it pays for medicines were never on the table at any point throughout talks. Protecting the NHS is a fundamental principle of UK trade policy to which the Government are committed throughout their programme of Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

The UK has also negotiated appropriate protections for our farmers. We have arranged staged tariff reductions over a significant period of time for sensitive agricultural goods to give producers time to adjust. We have also guaranteed permanent annual limits on tariff-free imports of beef, pork, chicken, sugar and milled rice.

The UK will not compromise its food standards by joining CPTPP. Our import requirements for food and drink will not be affected by joining the agreement and there will be no requirement to change our standards to accept products which do not conform to our current food standards, including chlorine-washed chicken or hormone-fed beef.

Next steps

The agreed text will now undergo legal review before signature of the agreement. Once the agreement is signed the Government will present an informational copy of the agreement to Parliament. As well as the text of the treaty, the Government will also provide explanatory material including an impact assessment of the deal. This approach is part of the extensive package of transparency and scrutiny measures that the Government have put in place for new trade agreements.

Once the treaty has been published, the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission will prepare its advice on the agreement.

After the Trade and Agriculture Commission report has been published, and the Government have published their own report under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020, the agreement will be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days of formal scrutiny under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG). There will be at least three months between publication of the agreement and the commencement of the scrutiny period under CRaG.

Any legislation required to implement the agreement will need to be scrutinised and passed by Parliament in the usual ways.

[HCWS717]