UK hopes to conclude negotiations for CPTPP within the next year: Dominic Raab

THE United Kingdom hopes to make "substantial progress" or even conclude negotiations to join a Pacific free trade agreement (FTA) within the next year, said its top diplomat.

Britain and countries in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) launched formal negotiations this week to begin its accession into the alliance.

"The hope is that over the course of this year and next year, we can make substantial progress, and possibly even conclude it," Dominic Raab, UK's First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary, told reporters in Singapore during a trip to South-east Asia.

He added that the UK's trade deals with Japan, Vietnam and its most recent one with Australia puts it in a good "springboard" into the negotiation process.

The CPTPP, which involves 11 countries in the Pacific region with a combined gross domestic product worth about US$13.5 trillion, came into effect in December 2018.

Mr Raab's visit to Singapore involves meetings with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan to discuss security and economic cooperation, in addition to responses to regional human rights challenges and recovery from Covid-19.

During his discussion with Dr Balakrishnan, Mr Raab said both agreed they should put "rocket boosters" on a digital economy agreement that is already in the pipeline, following the signing of an FTA last year.

"Both the UK and Singapore are global leaders in the digital economy - 70 per cent of UK services which were exported were delivered remotely to Singapore in 2019, worth over £3 billion (S$5.6 billion)," he said, adding that it caters to the need to share a comparative advantage for both sides.

Mr Raab also visited Vietnam and Cambodia during his three-day trip to South-east Asia, and he has announced a £4.2 million official development assistance funding for science to support the region's Covid-19 response and economic recovery, as well as its transition to clean energy sources.

The UK has also made a bid for Asean partner dialogue status, and the signal from Asean leaders is that it will be accepted, Mr Raab said.

In response to questions about Apple Daily's closure in Hong Kong on Thursday, Mr Raab said Britain views the closure of the pro-democracy paper and the arrest of journalists "very, very seriously".

It is part of the ongoing failure by China to comply with the joint declaration on a series of commitments to respect the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, he said.

"We call on China to respect the terms that it freely signed up to, and we think that's a matter of trust as well as important for the people of Hong Kong," he said.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, is a set of agreements on how Hong Kong should be governed after the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Apple Daily closed following a government clampdown last week that led to the arrest of five top executives and a freeze on the paper's assets.