UK seeks to conclude talks to join trans-Pacific pack by 2022

Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss arrives at number 10 Downng Street in central London on March 17, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

The UK seeks to conclude talks to join a trans-Pacific trade group by the end of 2022, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss told the Financial Times.

Truss said negotiations with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s 11 member countries would be the immediate focus for a “Global Britain” post-Brexit trade agenda, the paper reported. The trade bloc includes emerging economies such as Mexico and Vietnam, and advanced ones including Japan and Canada.

READ MORE: CPTPP marks a higher level of free trade

The trade secretary told the Financial Times that the CPTPP would let the UK benefit from “huge” economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, citing that two-thirds of the world’s middle class will live in Asia by 2030. She said the products they demand are the type of items that Britain produces – from high-value manufactured goods to data products and financial services. 

The European Union will be a smaller proportion of the world economy in the next few decades while CPTPP members will take a bigger share, the paper cited Truss as saying.

ALSO READ: CPTPP interest proof of China's further opening-up

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