From one trade union to another?

One month after leaving the European single market on the occasion of Brexit, the United Kingdom will apply for the trans-Pacific trade treaty, the country announced on Saturday, January 30.

This trade alliance brings together eleven countries in Asia and the Americas.

The British Minister for International Trade, Liz Truss, will formalize on Monday this request for London to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which already includes Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico and Vietnam in particular.

>> To read: Brexit: British food products blocked by the European Union

Negotiations between London and the Trans-Pacific Treaty partners are expected to begin this year, the UK Department for International Trade added in a statement.

This initiative comes a year after the United Kingdom officially left the European Union at the end of January 2020, after 47 years of stormy European integration.

London then benefited from a transitional period, until December 31, 2020, during which the British continued to apply EU standards before leaving the single market and the European customs union.

Post-Brexit Agreements

A free trade agreement was concluded at the end of December, after tough negotiations, between London and Brussels to regulate their relations after their historic rupture.

Gaining a foothold in Asia, London previously signed a first major post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement with Japan in October.

In December, he signed another free trade agreement, this time with Singapore, a major financial and trade platform, member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and CPTPP.

"Applying to become the first new country to join the CPTPP proves our ambition to do business under the best conditions with our friends and partners all over the world and to be a fervent champion of global free trade", welcomed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Joining the CPTPP treaty will provide "huge opportunities," said Liz Truss, "it will mean lower tariffs for automakers and whiskey producers and better access for our excellent service providers, creating quality jobs and greater prosperity for the people here ".

"Another commercial block at the end of the world"

Karan Bilimoria, the president of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) - the main British employers' organization - for his part welcomed an initiative which opens "a new chapter in our independent trade policy", a membership of the CPTPP with "the potential to create new opportunities for UK companies in different sectors ".

The tone is less enthusiastic on the side of the Labor opposition, its international trade official Emily Thornberry stressing that Labor would closely examine the modalities of joining the trade pact.

After five years of Brexit debates, the British will question the government's decision to "rush to join another (trade bloc) on the other side of the world without any significant public consultation", also said Emily Thornberry.

The CPTPP was launched in 2019 to remove trade barriers between its eleven countries, which represent nearly 500 million consumers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Its objective is also to counter the growing economic influence of China.

With AFP

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