The UK has quietly joined a Pacific trade partnership but aren’t there drawbacks?
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a trade agreement between 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, who are collectively responsible for 13 per cent of the world economy.
The UK is the first non-founding country to join, under Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds [pictured], and will be its second biggest economy after Japan, taking the value of the new grouping to £11 trillion.
The gains don’t add up to much – about a 0.8 per cent increase to the UK economy. But the hope is that this figure will grow because some other members – like Vietnam – are rapidly growing in terms of global trade; they’ll take more UK exports in the future, and we desperately need that after forfeiting four per cent of our growth to Brexit.
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And the losses?
As part of the agreement, the UK will grant Canadian farmers more access to UK markets – but hormone-treated meat will still be banned.
And it is conceding to lower tariffs on imports of Malaysian palm oil – which has been blamed for aiding deforestation.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: plans to encourage more investment could allow multinational companies to legally challenge British policies.
This was what scuppered the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) a few years ago. The concern was that the then-planned deal would make multinationals more powerful than the UK government and that was not acceptable to a majority of people here who paid attention to what was happening.
According to the BBC’s report, trade experts are saying the possibility of large firms challenging UK laws exists in other trade deals but has never been successfully exercised against a government.
That doesn’t mean it never will.
One element in the UK’s favour this time is that, as the second-largest economy in this relatively-new organisation, if any business from one of the other countries tries to impose its conditions on our membership, we can always threaten to walk away; losing us will harm them more than us.
But (again) this only applies as long as those other countries’ economies remain relatively small.
So we’ll have to keep an eye on this – and make sure our own government is being honest with us as much as monitoring the behaviour of others.
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UK has quietly joined a Pacific trade partnership but aren’t there drawbacks?
The UK has quietly joined a Pacific trade partnership but aren’t there drawbacks?
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a trade agreement between 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, who are collectively responsible for 13 per cent of the world economy.
The UK is the first non-founding country to join, under Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds [pictured], and will be its second biggest economy after Japan, taking the value of the new grouping to £11 trillion.
The gains don’t add up to much – about a 0.8 per cent increase to the UK economy. But the hope is that this figure will grow because some other members – like Vietnam – are rapidly growing in terms of global trade; they’ll take more UK exports in the future, and we desperately need that after forfeiting four per cent of our growth to Brexit.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
And the losses?
As part of the agreement, the UK will grant Canadian farmers more access to UK markets – but hormone-treated meat will still be banned.
And it is conceding to lower tariffs on imports of Malaysian palm oil – which has been blamed for aiding deforestation.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: plans to encourage more investment could allow multinational companies to legally challenge British policies.
This was what scuppered the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) a few years ago. The concern was that the then-planned deal would make multinationals more powerful than the UK government and that was not acceptable to a majority of people here who paid attention to what was happening.
According to the BBC’s report, trade experts are saying the possibility of large firms challenging UK laws exists in other trade deals but has never been successfully exercised against a government.
That doesn’t mean it never will.
One element in the UK’s favour this time is that, as the second-largest economy in this relatively-new organisation, if any business from one of the other countries tries to impose its conditions on our membership, we can always threaten to walk away; losing us will harm them more than us.
But (again) this only applies as long as those other countries’ economies remain relatively small.
So we’ll have to keep an eye on this – and make sure our own government is being honest with us as much as monitoring the behaviour of others.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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