The new agreement, to be called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), or TPP-11, is due to be signed on 8th March in Chile. Here in Australia it is likely to be examined by a Senate inquiry, before and if it is ratified by the parliament.
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has said the UK’s interest in joining the CPTPP showed it was a high-quality trade agreement and that other countries who aren’t even in the Pacific may also want to look at joining down the track. He added, however, that Australia would focus on a one-on-one deal, even if the UK were to sign up, expressing his intention to pursue a comprehensive trade deal between Australia and the UK, once the UK has exited the EU.
The prospect of Britain joining the regional trade agreement was first floated at the Prosperity conference in March last year. There, senior trade officials and former negotiators said the UK could step into the gap left by America, once it was free from the European Union and able to strike its own trade deals.
Japan’s prime minister Mr Abe has claimed credit for reviving the mega trade pact – first negotiated when Barack Obama was president – after it suffered a near-death experience when Donald Trump withdrew the USA as part of his America First pledge. Australia and Japan were key in resuscitating the deal but were dealt a further blow when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unexpectedly declined to ratify it at the November APEC summit in Vietnam.
For now, the fate of the deal rests in the hands of the governments of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
