San Francisco Frontiers - Mixed reception to UK unveiling trans-Pacific trade pact membership

Britain will be the first new member since the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was created in 2018, and the first European country in the bloc.

The trade grouping will include more than 500 million people and account for 15 percent of global gross domestic product once the UK becomes its 12th member, according to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office.

It said Britain's accession -- after 21 months of "intense negotiations" -- puts the country "at the heart of a dynamic group of economies" and is evidence of "seizing the opportunities of our new post-Brexit trade freedoms".

The development fulfils a key pledge of Brexit supporters that, outside the European Union, the UK can capitalise on joining other trade blocs with faster-growing economies than those closer to home.

But others have noted that such ventures will struggle to compensate for the economic damage sustained by leaving the EU, the world's largest trading bloc and collective economy.

"The impact on the UK economy from the UK joining the CPTPP will probably be fairly small," said Ashley Webb, of Capital Economics.

"Having said that, it may help to improve UK international relations and other countries' perceptions of the UK as a trading partner."

- 'Strategic' -

The CPTPP is the successor to a previous trans-Pacific trade pact that the United States withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Its members include fellow Group of Seven members Canada and Japan, and historic UK allies Australia and New Zealand.

The remaining members are Chile, Mexico and Peru, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Despite rising geopolitical tensions, in particular with Canberra, China formally applied to join the bloc in 2021.

All existing members must reach a consensus for a new country to enter the CPTPP. London is set to formally join later this year following nearly two years of talks.

In Tokyo, Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno welcomed the expansion.

"The UK is a global strategic partner and also an important trading and investment partner," he told reporters.

Its accession "will have great meaning for forming a free and fair economic order", he added.

Since Britain quit the EU's single market in 2021, it has been trying to strike bilateral deals to boost its international trade -- and flagging economy.

London has so far inked agreements with far-flung allies including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and is in talks with India and Canada.

However, a prized pact with the United States remains stalled.

- 'Longer-term benefits' -

King's College London economist Jonathan Portes noted the CPTPP was not a "deep multilateral agreement" like its predecessor pact or the EU, so its impacts in lowering trade barriers would be "quite small".

"Joining CPTPP may have longer-term benefits, both economic... and geopolitical," he added. "But of course you can't directly quantify those at this point."

Almost all UK goods exported to member countries will now be eligible for zero tariffs, including key British exports such as cars, chocolate, machinery and whisky, Sunak's office said.

The UK's dominant services industry will also benefit from "reduced red tape and greater access to growing Pacific markets with an appetite for high-quality UK products and services".

But the estimated long-term UK economic boost -- of £1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) -- is only a 0.08 percent increase to annual GDP, analysts noted.

Scotland's devolved government, which is pushing to join the EU as an independent nation after breaking away from the UK, seized on the statistic.

"It is clear that this agreement will not make up for the damaging impact of the UK leaving the EU and forfeiting access to the European single market," its trade minister Richard Lochhead said.

He noted 43 percent of pre-Brexit Scottish exports headed to the EU.

However, the National Farmers Union was among those to welcome the news, saying it "could provide some good opportunities to get more fantastic British food on plates overseas".

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L.Nguyen--SFF