The accession of the United Kingdom to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has been on the current agenda for the enlargement of the CPTPP since 2 June 2021, when the CPTPP Commission decided to move forward with the application of the United Kingdom as an aspirant economy. The United Kingdom officially applied for CPTPP membership on 1 February 2021. Accession negotiations between the UK and the 11 current CPTPP members negotiations were concluded on 31 March 2023. The UK formally signed the accession protocol on 16 July 2023. The UK and at least 6 of the 11 existing member nations will need to ratify the accession protocol before it takes effect. The UK Government expected the entry into force to take place in the second half of 2024. On 29 August 2024, the UK government announced the agreement is expected to enter into force on 15 December 2024, after securing the final ratification required for membership.
The United Kingdom became the first non-original member and European country to join CPTPP. The UK's membership currently covers all three Crown Dependencies, these are Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man.
History
Following its withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom began negotiations on several free trade agreements to remove or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, both to establish new agreements and to replace previous EU trade agreements. Withdrawal ended 47 years of membership during which all its trading agreements were negotiated by the European Commission on behalf of the bloc. The UK did not actually withdraw from the European Single Market and the European Union Customs Union (and its trade agreements) until 31 December 2020.
Following its failure to secure a United Kingdom–United States free trade agreement, Britain had been reportedly interested in joining several multilateral free trade agreements including USMCA. In January 2018, the government of the United Kingdom stated it was exploring membership of the CPTPP to stimulate exports after Brexit and has held informal discussions with several of the members.
In October 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would welcome the United Kingdom joining the partnership post-Brexit. In a joint Telegraph article with Simon Birmingham, David Parker, and Chan Chun Sing, the trade ministers of Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, UK Secretary of State for Trade, Liz Truss, expressed the United Kingdom's intent to join the CPTPP. The UK Department for Trade's chief negotiator Crawford Falconer helped lead the New Zealand negotiations for the predecessor Trans-Pacific Partnership before leaving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2012.
In June 2020, the government of the United Kingdom issued a policy paper reaffirming the UK's position on accession to the CPTPP. There were three reasons given: Securing increased trade and investment opportunities that will help the UK economy overcome the unprecedented challenge posed by coronavirus. Joining CPTPP would open up new opportunities for UK exporters in strategically important sectors and helping to support an industrial revival in the UK Helping the United Kingdom diversify trading links and supply chains, and in doing so increasing economic security at a time of heightened uncertainty and disruption in the world. Assisting the UK's future place in the world and advancing the UK's longer-term interests. CPTPP membership is an important part of our strategy to place the UK at the centre of a modern, progressive network of free trade agreements with dynamic economies. Doing so would turn the UK into a global hub for businesses and investors wanting to trade with the rest of the world.
Furthermore, the British government stated that in 2019, each region and constituent country of the United Kingdom exported at least £1 billion ($1.25 billion) worth of goods to CPTPP member countries. The UK government also highlighted that British companies held close to £98 billion worth of investments in CPTPP countries in 2018 and that in 2019, the UK did more than £110 billion ($137 billion) worth of trade with countries in the CPTPP free trade area. In December 2020 the UK's Secretary of State for Trade Liz Truss further expressed her desire for the UK to formally apply in early 2021. In a speech, held on 20 January 2021, Truss announced the UK planned to submit an application for participation "shortly". In October 2020 the United Kingdom and Japan already signed the UK–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which was a roll over of the agreement between the EU and Japan.
The British government had not produced an impact assessment explaining or quantifying the benefits it expects for the UK economy from accession to CPTPP. It has been disputed whether accession is worth pursuing for economic reasons. Farmer, environmental and consumer groups, and the Scottish government, raised concerns that the UK government would need to agree to lowering standards on pesticides, pig welfare and food labelling.
Negotiations
On 1 February 2021, the United Kingdom formally applied to join CPTPP. The UK is the first non-founding country to apply to join the CPTPP. If successful, Britain would become the second largest CPTPP economy, after Japan. Japan had expressed support for the UK's potential entry into CPTPP in 2018, and as 4th CPTPP Commission (2021) chair, Japan's minister in charge of negotiations on the trade pact, Yasutoshi Nishimura, expressed hope on Twitter that Britain will "demonstrate its strong determination to fully comply with high-standard obligations" of the free trade accord, and mentioned that "I believe that the UK's accession request will have a great potential to expand the high-standard rules beyond the Asia-Pacific."
In June 2021, the CPTPP states agreed to open accession talks. A working group was established to discuss tariffs and rules governing investment and trade. The United Kingdom was forecast to accede to the CPTPP at 2022 at the earliest.
Prior to its withdrawal, the United Kingdom had agreed to 36 free trade agreements with countries and trade blocs, the majority of which entered force on 1 January 2021. 33 of these free trade agreements were continuity agreements. These used a mutatis mutandis concept to quickly replicate the existing EU agreements, only having to call out those minor areas of differentiation. This meant that the UK had continuity free trade agreements with 6 CPTPP members, these were: Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
The UK and Japan had also signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement in October 2020 which was mostly based on Japan–European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, but was branded as "marking an historic moment" as the "UK's first major trade deal as an independent trading nation". In addition, two further new agreements were signed with Australia, on 17 December 2021, and New Zealand, on 28 February 2022. This meant that the UK had free trade agreements signed with all members of CPTPP, except for Brunei and Malaysia, by the end of February 2022.
On 18 February 2022, confirmation came from the Japanese government, as Chair of the United Kingdom's Accession Working Group on behalf of the CPTPP members, that the UK had moved into the second (and final) 'market access' phase of negotiations with the CPTPP.
On 31 March 2023, the United Kingdom concluded negotiations to join the CPTPP, as the 11 members reached an agreement to Britain's accession. Each of the existing member nations will need to ratify the UK's addition to the partnership before it takes effect.
The United Kingdom negotiated on behalf of the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories during free trade agreement discussions. On 31 March 2023, the UK government announced it had secured an extension mechanism, which could extend the whole agreement to any Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory. On the same day, Guernsey and Jersey confirmed their intentions to participate in CPTPP. In May 2023, a UK government spokesman confirmed that "the deal will cover goods trade between the Crown Dependencies and CPTPP countries, with a mechanism to include trade in services in future."
On 17 April 2023 on the occasion of G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Karuizawa, Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly attended a bilateral meeting with Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Yoshimasa Hayashi. The two ministers affirmed to continue advancing the UK's accession process to the CPTPP, and they engaged in a candid discussion from a strategic perspective.
The United Kingdom formally signed the CPTPP accession protocol during the ministerial meeting of members in New Zealand on 16 July 2023.
Accession protocol After the UK became a signatory on 16 July 2023, the accession protocol allowed 15 months for each member nation to ratify the agreement, which would then take effect 60 days later. Member nations, consequently, had until 16 October 2024 to ratify. The protocol could have entered into force in one of two ways:
If the UK and each of the existing member nations had ratified the “Protocol on the Accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership” within the 15 months. If the UK and at least six (6) CPTPP member countries had ratified the agreement within the 15 months. Member countries that ratified later would have become parties to the protocol 60 days later.
The agreement has been ratified by the latter process and therefore entered into force on 15 December 2024 with eight (8) countries. The agreement entered into force with Australia and Mexico on 24 December 2024 and 22 June 2026 respectively. Canada also ratified the accession protocol, and the agreement entered into force on 1 September 2026.
Application timeline
Event Date Ref. Application submitted Accession process opened Negotiations concluded Formal signature Existing member ratifications UK domestic ratification 15 May 2024 UK deposition of accession instrument 16 May 2024 Full membership15 December 2024
Ratification process Signatory Ratified Institution AB DepositedEffective 9 October 2024 House of RepresentativesMajority approval (Standing vote) 25 October 2024 24 December 202410 October 2024 SenateMajority approval (Standing vote) 24 October 2024 Royal assentGranted 16 October 2024 No parliamentary approval required 16 October 2024 15 December 2024 12 March 2026 House of CommonsPassed 3 July 2026 1 September 2026 28 April 2026 Senate Passed 6 May 2026 Royal assent Granted 3 April 2024 No congressional approval required 3 April 2024 15 December 2024 20 November 2023 House of Representatives Majority approval (Standing vote) 15 December 2023 15 December 20246 December 2023 House of Councillors Majority approval (Standing vote) 17 September 2024 Cabinet of Malaysia 17 September 2024 15 December 2024 10 December 2025 Senate 104 0 0 23 April 2026 22 June 2026 15 January 2026 Presidential Assent Granted 4 June 2024 No parliamentary approval required 4 June 2024 15 December 2024 20 August 2024 President Granted28 August 2024 15 December 2024 17 January 2024 No parliamentary approval required 17 January 2024 15 December 2024 25 June 2024 National Assembly 459 0 1 1 August 2024 15 December 2024
Domestic Process in the United Kingdom
In an article published on 4 November 2023 in the UK newspaper the Daily Express, the UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch confirmed that the process of ratification for CPTPP accession was to commence shortly – stating that "in the coming weeks, we will bring forward a Bill to confirm our membership of CPTPP and ensure businesses can start seizing the historic opportunities the deal offers."