UK's exports 'to grow by £37 billion' says Liz Truss
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UK ministers haven’t wasted time when it comes to firming post-Brexit trade relations, with several deals now in place. The most recent came this month when Boris Johnson received Aussie Prime Minister Scott Morrison to sign a long-discussed Australian deal. Although it offers some limited benefits for the UK’s GDP, it is with just one country, and ministers plan to court an entire bloc.
What is the CPTPP?
CPTPP is shorthand for The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The agreement joins 11 Pacific Rim nations in a financial partnership to provide wider access to one another’s markets.
But it doesn’t operate quite like the EU Single Market, which until 2020 provided 51 and 53 percent of British imports and exports, respectively.
The CPTPP’s current members include:
- Australia
- Brunei
- Canada
- Chile
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Peru
- Singapore
- Vietnam
As a bloc, these nations generate roughly 13 percent of global income.
A key benefit of the CPTPP against the Single Market is that it preserves individual countries’ standards and regulations.
They can also continue to strike up individual agreements with other non-members.
Otherwise, people will be hard-pressed to find significant benefits for the UK, as the country already has deals with CPTPP constituents that rolled over from EU membership.
Since Brexit, the UK has also finalised an agreement with Japan and entered advanced trade discussions with New Zealand.
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Brunei and Malaysia are the only CPTPP members currently operating without individual agreements with the UK.
And the Government’s own documents show the benefits of adding them to the equation will barely add to GDP.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) outlined how much the economy could benefit in a document on the impact joining the CPTPP would have on greenhouse gas emissions.
The document acknowledged the partnership would increase emissions by 0.025 percent, less than the increase in GDP, which they estimated was 0.08 percent.
Minus Malaysia and Brunei, the CPTPP will provide less than half a billion pounds of investment.
Shadow International Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry said the remaining nine CPTPP nations would boost GDP by 0.017 percent, or £400 million.
Trade minister Liz Truss has voiced her optimism for joining the bloc, however, suggesting exports to CPTPP nations could increase by 65 percent to £37 billion by 2030.
Ms Truss said the UK’s “greatest opportunities” lie in the Pacific, where the country can take advantage of “fast-growing consumer markets beyond Europe.”
She added: “It is a glittering post-Brexit prize that I want us to seize.”
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