The UK has today officially joined CPTPP as a fully-fledged member, potentially boosting the UK economy by £2 billion a year in the long run. CPTPP is a major trade bloc whose members - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and now the UK – have a combined GDP of £12 trillion.

UKABC was delighted to host HMTC Martin Kent and David Johnstone from the Department for Business and Trade for a tour de force covering updates on ASEAN and the wider Asia Pacific region from both a bilateral and wider regional political and commercial perspective.

Following a visit earlier this year by Martin Kent, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific, the UK-ASEAN Business Council (UKABC) was pleased to work in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and The British High Commission in Brunei to deliver the first-ever UK Trade Mission to Brunei Darussalam. 12 companies joined us on the mission which ran from 25-27 November 2024.

The UK has secured the sixth and final ratification required to trigger our accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) before the end of this year. CPTPP is a free trade area spanning five continents and almost 600 million people once the UK joins. Following Peru’s ratification of our deal to join the bloc, the agreement will now officially...

Joining CPTPP – which will account for 15% of global GDP with the UK included – means over 99% of current UK goods exports to CPTPP members will be eligible for tariff-free trade. Encompassing 500 million consumers in some of the world’s largest current and future economies, the potential for increased trade is huge.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Act receives Royal Assent.

Singapore has formally ratified the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), becoming the second existing member to do so after Japan late last year.

The UK Government is interested in receiving views from businesses, individuals and other interested stakeholders on which areas of the current CPTPP agreement the government should seek to keep the same, change or improve through the CPTPP general review.

UK food and drink exporters are toasting success this Christmas as demand from consumers in CPTPP, the massive trade bloc in the Indo-Pacific the UK signed up to in July, has boomed ahead of the festive season.

Latest figures show toy and bike exports are worth £640 million, with CPTPP membership to make it even easier for British businesses to export children’s presents to the region next Christmas.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch is in San Francisco today [Wednesday 15 November] to meet Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Ministers in-person for the first time since she was in New Zealand to sign the deal on the UK’s membership in July.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch formally signed the treaty confirming the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – the Indo-Pacific trade bloc now worth £12 trillion in GDP – in New Zealand today [Sunday 16th].