UK to reap CPTPP benefits with strong focus on Asia: official
As a whole, the 12-member grouping’s GDP is nearly £12 trillion or 15% of the world’s total
[LONDON] Fresh from sealing its membership in one of the world’s largest trade pacts, the United Kingdom is ready to reap the benefits and help more companies grow their presence in new and existing markets, a top British official said.
In December last year, the UK officially joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). With the UK on board as the first non-founding member, the CPTPP now spans five continents and nearly 600 million people.
Among the 11 founding members are Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Japan. The UK is the pact’s second-largest economy after Japan.
As a whole, the group’s gross domestic product (GDP) is nearly £12 trillion (S$20.2 trillion), or 15 per cent of the world’s total, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund.
The UK government estimated that investment by CPTPP members in the country was in excess of £200 billion in 2024.
Martin Kent, the UK’s Trade Commissioner for Asia-Pacific, outlined the government’s key priorities in CPTPP, with Asia being a strong focus. He stressed that British companies should grow their exports to Asia as half of the world’s middle-income earners live there.
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“From 2025 onwards, (our estimate is that) Britain’s membership in CPTPP will generate around £5 billion a year,” he said. “This is less than 1 per cent of GDP, but member countries are growing rapidly and it will be only a matter of time that the proportion will exceed 1 per cent.”
One of the main advantages of the CPTPP membership is the UK having greater access to the other markets. According to UK officials, 99 per cent of exports – everything from cars and whisky to cheese and chocolate – to CPTPP members will be tariff-free.
While the UK already had individual treaties with most of the CPTPP members, it now has a direct connection with Malaysia and Brunei for the first time. These two nations, however, account for less than 0.5 per cent of the total of UK trade.
William Bain, the head of trade policy at the British Chamber of Commerce, said that CPTPP offers advantages for all businesses, no matter their size. These include flexible supply chains that cut costs, easy transfer of employees between member states, and access to trade data.
It will also help to reduce red tape, he told The Business Times in a recent interview. The reduced tariffs on imported goods from CPTPP members will also mean lower prices for British consumers, he added.
In January, Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds appointed a “global growth team” of UK trade envoys to drive UK exports and investment.
These envoys are 32 lawmakers from across the political spectrum, with each of them assigned specific markets across six continents and tasked to identify trade and investment opportunities. They are also supposed to promote the UK as a top investment destination.
“The envoys will apply their experience, expertise and knowledge to unlock new markets around the world,” added Reynolds. “They should also drum up foreign investment to drive economic growth.”
There has been plenty of interest from other countries in wanting to join the CPTPP. The likes of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay have all formally applied to join. In Asia, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea have expressed an interest in joining.
Notably, China is reportedly among those keen to sign up, as is Taiwan. As of the end of December last year, there has not been any working group set up to consider either China’s or Taiwan’s application.
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