Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Europe endless – Kraftwerk
- Introduction
- 1 Lessons from the Past? The 1954 Association Agreement between the UK and the European Coal and Steel Community
- 2 From the European Free Trade Association to the European Economic Community and the European Economic Area: Portugal’s Post-Second World War Path
- 3 Norway and the European Economic Area: Why the Most Comprehensive Trade Agreement Ever Negotiated Is Not Good Enough
- 4 Switzerland: Striking Hard Bargains with Soft Edges
- 5 The Customs Union between Turkey and the European Union
- 6 Ukraine: The Association Agreement Model
- 7 Canada and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
- 8 The World Trade Organization Model
- 9 “Singapore on the Thames”
- 10 The United Kingdom and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership
- 11 Australia (and New Zealand) after the 1973 “Great Betrayal”
- 12 What Future for the Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories and Gibraltar?
- 13 The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: A Flexible and Imaginative Solution for the Unique Circumstances on the Island of Ireland?
- 14 EU–UK Security Relations after Brexit
- 15 The UK Still In Europe? Is the UK’s Membership of the Council of Europe In Doubt?
- Afterword
- Index
10 - The United Kingdom and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Europe endless – Kraftwerk
- Introduction
- 1 Lessons from the Past? The 1954 Association Agreement between the UK and the European Coal and Steel Community
- 2 From the European Free Trade Association to the European Economic Community and the European Economic Area: Portugal’s Post-Second World War Path
- 3 Norway and the European Economic Area: Why the Most Comprehensive Trade Agreement Ever Negotiated Is Not Good Enough
- 4 Switzerland: Striking Hard Bargains with Soft Edges
- 5 The Customs Union between Turkey and the European Union
- 6 Ukraine: The Association Agreement Model
- 7 Canada and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
- 8 The World Trade Organization Model
- 9 “Singapore on the Thames”
- 10 The United Kingdom and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership
- 11 Australia (and New Zealand) after the 1973 “Great Betrayal”
- 12 What Future for the Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories and Gibraltar?
- 13 The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: A Flexible and Imaginative Solution for the Unique Circumstances on the Island of Ireland?
- 14 EU–UK Security Relations after Brexit
- 15 The UK Still In Europe? Is the UK’s Membership of the Council of Europe In Doubt?
- Afterword
- Index
Summary
This chapter provides a brief outline of what the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is before discussing the UK government's declared objectives in potential membership of it. It then provides an assessment of what the CPTPP offers as a comprehensive free trade agreement, compared to the provisions of recent EU Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs). The EU has negotiated bilateral PTAs with CPTPP members Japan, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Vietnam and Singapore, is well advanced in negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, and negotiations with Malaysia have been initiated but not greatly advanced. Any assessment of the costs and benefits of CPTPP membership depends on the specific commitments negotiated bilaterally between the UK and each CPTPP member. This includes, in particular, detailed schedules on tariffs, tariff rate quotas, cross-border services, investment liberalization and government procurement. It may also include provisions on recognition of regulatory provisions, such as on professional qualifications, food and product standards and data protection.
A full assessment of the impact of UK membership of the CPTPP is therefore currently not possible and any comprehensive study is beyond the scope of this chapter. A general assessment of the relative gains from potential CPTPP membership is therefore provided by a comparison between the EU–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and Japan's commitments under the CPTPP. The chapter discusses some of the questions that will arise in any negotiation process. Finally, as the initiative to launch negotiations with the CPTPP (as well as the USA, Australia and New Zealand) is the first step towards a new independent trade policy for the UK, the chapter looks at what this tells us about how the UK might go about decision-making and negotiating future trade agreements.
THE CPTPP
The origins of the CPTPP go back to an initiative by the P4 (Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand) for the Trans-Pacific Strategic EPA that came into force in 2006. In 2008 negotiations began with eight other countries (the USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru and Australia) and in 2016 these signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This expansion was driven by the US decision to join in order to provide the economic underpinning of the Obama administration's “pivot to Asia”.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Outside the EUOptions for Britain, pp. 121 - 134Publisher: Agenda PublishingPrint publication year: 2020