Great Britain has officially joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), according to an official announcement on Sunday, reports Anadolu.
Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch officially signed the agreement in New Zealand, bringing the UK into the CPTPP, a trade bloc in the Indo-Pacific region with a gross domestic product (GDP) of £12 trillion (about $16 trillion).
The government has released new statistics showing that companies associated with the CPTPP employ one per cent of the UK workforce, and membership is expected to boost further investment in the UK.
Under this agreement, more than 99 percent of current exports of goods from the UK to CPTPP countries will be entitled to zero tariffs.
Dairy producers, for example, will benefit from reduced tariffs on cheese and butter exports to Canada, Chile, Japan and Mexico.
“I am delighted to be here in New Zealand and sign a deal that will be a huge boost for British businesses and bring billions of pounds of additional trade, as well as opening up huge opportunities and unrivaled access to a market of over 500 million people,” Badenoch said.
This deal is the biggest trade deal since Brexit.
The government announced that Great Britain is the first European member and the first new member since the CPTPP was created, which would have been impossible if they had remained in the European Union.
The CPTPP is a free trade agreement (FTA) between Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan and Great Britain.
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