U.K. to join Asia-Pacific free trade pact CPTPP - The Hindu

The U.K. government has announced that it is applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), one of the world's largest free-trade areas made up of 11 developed and emerging economies in the Pacific, under its post-Brexit plans.

Joining the CPTPP reflects the U.K.’s post-Brexit Pacific tilt and is dubbed as a critical part of the Prime Minister Boris Johnson led government’s wider trade strategy, which aims to deepen links with faster-growing parts of the world and partnering with countries who believe in free and fair trade, including India.

The decision to join the CPTPP, comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, marks one year since the U.K. left the European Union (EU) on January 31 last year and entered a Brexit transition period which concluded at the start of this year.

"One year after our departure for the EU we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain,” said U.K. Prime Minister Johnson.

"Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade,” he said.