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”.