Delivering on your priorities: Growing the economy with our biggest trade deal since Brexit
We’re joining Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam in one of the biggest trade partnerships in the world. And your support made it possible.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK will join a new trade partnership.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is the biggest trade deal we’ve signed since Brexit.
And we’re leading the way by becoming the first European country to join it.
This means UK businesses will have tariff-free access to a market of 500 million, now worth £11 trillion.
It’s good for jobs, good for towns and cities across the UK and good for economic growth.
And make no mistake: because EU rules prevented us from signing deals like this, we were only able to get it done after Brexit.
Devonshire cheese, London gin, Scottish whisky and much more will now be more freely traded, benefiting people across the UK.
Cutting red tape will give UK businesses competitive access to some of the world’s largest and fastest growing markets. We Conservatives are putting UK business on the front foot, with more than 99 per cent of goods eligible for zero tariffs – making it easier for us to sell into the bloc.
- Milk farmers, cheese makers and producers of other dairy products like butter will get lower tariffs in Canada, Japan and Mexico.
- Exporters of chocolate will benefit from zero tariffs on exports to Mexico and Malaysia.
- And whisky exporters will see Malaysian tariffs reduced from around 80 per cent to 0 per cent in 10 years.
It’s a deal that delivers for British businesses, slashing red tape to let exporters enter new, fast-growing markets – growing our economy.
Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, said:
This is an important moment for the UK. Our accession to CPTPP sends a powerful signal that the UK is open for business and using our post-Brexit freedoms to reach out to new markets around the world and grow our economy.
Joining CPTPP will support jobs and create opportunities for companies of all sizes and in all parts of the UK. It is about giving British businesses improved access to the countries that will be gateway to the wider Indo-Pacific region which is projected to make up the majority of global growth in the future.
We are getting on with the job, delivering on your priorities. Growing the economy, by entering new trade deals, will deliver opportunities for people all across the United Kingdom:
- As a member of the EU, we were restricted from opportunities for trade outside the bloc. Now, as an independent nation, we can now forge our own path and sign new deals with countries worldwide.
- That is why, after 21 months of negotiations, we have signed the most significant trade deal since Brexit – becoming the first European country to join the CPTPP bloc and opening British businesses up to an area with 500 million people and a market worth £11 trillion.
- This deal will benefit British businesses of all sizes, in all corners of our United Kingdom, and help deliver on our promise to grow the economy.
Meanwhile Labour don’t want the deal; they don’t want to grow our economy – they’re more focused on the EU:
- Labour said it does not make sense to put effort into UK CPTPP membership when we could be focusing on Europe. Former Shadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry said: “Does it make any sense to put all this energy into UK membership of CPTPP and so little energy, by comparison, into fixing the holes in our deal with Europe?” (The Express, 7 August 2021, link).
- Labour warned against signing this deal, claiming the benefits of accession are “alarmingly small”. Labour’s former Shadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry warned the Government that the forecast benefits of UK accession to CPTPP are “alarmingly small compared to the price we are paying to join”. (Labour Press, 22 June 2021, link).