Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has had discussions with his counterparts in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on establishing a permanent secretariat for the CPTPP in the UK.

Ministers and Senior Officials meet regularly with their counterparts to discuss CPTPP issues. In November last year, CPTPP Ministers, including the UK, agreed the Vancouver Statement, providing an interim report on the CPTPP General Review. This covered a number of recommendations for taking the review forward, including a proposal for further discussions around improving the effective implementation and operation of the Agreement. The Statement noted that ‘these discussions should cover a range of approaches, including, but not limited to, the possible establishment of a secretariat’. The UK will continue to engage in such discussions with other CPTPP Parties under the auspices of the General Review in the coming year.