CPTPP: UK accepted into Indo-Pacific trade bloc in biggest trade deal since Brexit
The UK has been accepted into an Indo-Pacific trade bloc in what the government says is its biggest trade deal since Brexit.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a free trade agreement between 11 countries across the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – and now the UK.
The partnership sees the countries open up their markets to one another, reducing trade barriers and tariffs, with the hope of bolstering the economies of its members.
Sunak hails UK joining CPTPP – live politics updates
Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the UK’s accession to the CPTPP was formally confirmed in a telephone call between her and counterparts from the group at 1am BST on Friday.
The UK is the first European country to enter the agreement, and the government claims it will lead to a £1.8bn boost to the economy “in the long run”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deal shows “what we can achieve when we unleash the benefits of Brexit”.
While the UK already has trade agreements with most of the CPTPP members, apart from Malaysia, UK officials said it would deepen existing arrangements, with 99% of UK goods exported to the bloc now eligible for zero tariffs.
This includes cheese, cars, chocolate, machinery, gin and whisky, while Downing Street said the services industry would also enjoy “reduced red tape and greater access to growing Pacific markets”.
The deal has been praised by a number of business groups, including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Standard Chartered bank and the world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller Pernod Ricard.
But other trade experts have warned it will not make up for the economic hit caused by leaving the European Union.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said joining the CPTPP is a “massive opportunity” for British exporters and shows “our influence in this part of the world is becoming more significant”.
Ms Badenoch told Sky News the difference between being part of the CPTPP and the EU is “we make the rules and regulations on our standards”.
She promised the deal is “not going to displace farmers in the UK” and said it will provide more competition for EU countries so “people don’t have to buy what they don’t want”.
Ms Badenoch admitted the lower tariffs will apply to palm oil, which is responsible for destroying orangutan habitats, but said you “have to make trade-offs” when doing a deal and said the UK currently buys 1% of Malaysia’s exports and “moving to 2% from 1% is not what is going to cause deforestation.”
She claimed the UK will have “more influence” on sustainability as part of the bloc – despite Greenpeace calling the deal “outrageous”.
“Palm oil is actually a great product, it’s in so many of the things we use,” she added.
“This is not some illegal substance we’re talking about and actually there are other crops in the EU that are causing deforestation that fit within EU rules.”
The UK began negotiations to join the bloc in September 2021 when Boris Johnson was in Downing Street.
The signatory countries of the CPTPP are home to 500 million people and the government claims the deal will be worth £11 trillion in GDP, accounting for 15% of global GDP.
However, critics said the impact will be limited, with official estimates suggesting it will add just £1.8bn a year to the UK economy after 10 years, representing less than 1% of UK GDP.
Mr Sunak said the agreement “puts the UK at the centre of a dynamic and growing group of Pacific economies”.
“We are at our heart an open and free-trading nation, and this deal demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms,” he added.
“As part of CPTPP, the UK is now in a prime position in the global economy to seize opportunities for new jobs, growth and innovation.”
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‘Real milestone for British industry’
The announcement was welcomed by business group the CBI which called it “a real milestone for the UK and for British industry”.
Interim general director Matthew Fell said: “Not only does the agreement provide greater access to a group of fast growth economies representing 14% of global GDP and over 500 million consumers, but membership reinforces the UK’s commitment to building partnerships in an increasingly fragmented world.
“CPTPP countries and business need to work together to future-proof the rules-based trading system and stimulate growth with a focus on digital, services and resilient supply chains.”
Labour said the agreement represented “encouraging” progress but it needed to see details.
The party’s shadow trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Conservative government’s track record in striking good trade deals is desperately poor.
“Other countries joining CPTPP arrangements have secured important safeguards and put in place support for their producers: it is vital that ministers set out if they plan to do the same.”
Singapore is one of the now-12 members of the CPTPP
‘EU should be priority’
The Institute of Directors said it was “vital the UK signs trade deals to restore our international reputation since Brexit”.
But it added “complete reorientation” to the Indo-Pacific would not solve “the very real problem that businesses currently face – namely that they have many more trade related challenges than they did six years ago”.
“From our surveys, directors have told us that the EU-UK relationship is a priority issue the government needs to address in order to support business,” they said.
“UK companies still rely on the long-established links they have with EU markets, which are directly on our doorstep and with whom they have closer historical ties.
“The Indo-Pacific strategy will open up important opportunities for UK businesses, but the government must not forfeit the significance of our relationship with the EU in order to do so.”
The bodies of three Israeli hostage taken by Hamas have been recovered in Gaza.
The remains were discovered in an overnight operation carried out by Israel’s military and intelligence agency Shin Bet, said chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari.
Itzhak Gelerenter, 56, Amit Buskila, 28, and Shani Louk, 22, were killed at the Nova music festival on 7 October, with their bodies then taken into Gaza by Hamas militants.
Ms Louk’s body was seen face-down in a pick-up truck travelling through Gaza in a video that was shared widely on social media after the hostages were taken.
Israel-Gaza war latest updates
Shani Louk
Itzhak Gelerenter
Amit Buskila
“They were celebrating life in the Nova music festival and they were murdered by Hamas,” said Mr Hagari.
He said their families have been notified.
“Our hearts go out to them, to the families at this difficult time. We will leave no stone unturned, we will do everything in our power to find our hostages and bring them home.”
The military did not give immediate details on where their bodies were found.
Ms Louk’s father has said the return of his daughter’s body to her family has been a form of closure.
Nissim Louk told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz his daughter “radiated light, to her and those who surrounded her, and in her death she still does”.
He added: “She is a symbol of the people of Israel, between light and darkness. Her inner and outer beauty that shone for all the world to see is a special one.”
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In November, the brother of Ms Louk told Sky News of their last phone call as his sister tried to escape Hamas.
Speaking about the video that was circulated online after she was taken, Amit Louk said: “I never thought I was going to be in contact with this type of video, seeing my sister in that brutal position.
“And just in that moment, the whole family just crashed.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “heartbreaking”, saying: “We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead.”
Meanwhile, Professor Hagai Levine, a member of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has said the recovery of the bodies is a “painful reminder” of those who are still in captivity.
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“We do not lose hope. We are preparing for the return of the hostages that are alive,” he added.
Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the 7 October attack.
Around half of those have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a ceasefire in November.
Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
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Mr Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back.
He faces pressure to resign, and the US has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas.
World
Slovakia PM shooting: Friend of suspect recalls laughing with him just days before assassination attempt
Mile L’Udovit is leaning on the front door of his apartment block when we meet, just as he has done so often since moving in four decades ago.
He was one of the original tenants of the tatty building and so was his dear friend Juraj Cintula – the man charged with trying to kill Slovakia’s prime minister.
Mile is at once shocked, bemused, appalled and bewildered.
“He’s a good friend,” he tells me. Both men are 71 years old and talked often. “He was a decent, polite man. A good worker. His wife is a professor and his kids were okay. He had a good reputation. Everything was okay.
“Nobody expected something like this to happen. No one could imagine it. That’s the worst thing about it.
“I spoke to him on Monday and we were having a laugh, like neighbours do. It’s so unpleasant.”
Suspect Juraj Cintula is the author of several poetry collections. Pic: ENEX
The apartment block where L’Udovit and Cintula have lived for decades. Pic: AP Photo/Denes Erdos
He shakes his head and gestures up to Cintula’s apartment on the top of the building. “He will either die or get a life sentence. It’s going to be so hard for his family.”
Cintula has not yet been officially identified as the suspect, but it’s common knowledge in Slovakia.
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Video shows moment Slovak PM was shot
Armed police even brought him back to the apartment, dressed in a bulletproof jacket and helmet, to help gather evidence. So why, I ask Mile, did his old friend allegedly try to kill Robert Fico?
“You know, I can’t really say,” he replies thoughtfully. “We took politics as something to laugh at. But we kept our own opinions – he had his, I had mine.
“He was opposed to certain acts of the government and his opinions were quite different. But what was in his mind? Really, nobody knows.”
World
Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico has second surgery in two days after assassination attempt leaves him in ‘very serious’ condition
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has had a second surgery in two days after being shot multiple times in Europe’s first assassination attempt in more than 20 years.
The 59-year-old was shot multiple times while greeting supporters in the former mining town of Handlova on Wednesday. A man has been arrested over the shooting.
Mr Fico was left with life-threatening injuries, and while his condition improved the president-elect of Slovakia said he escaped death “by just a hair”.
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He is currently recovering at the University FD Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, and underwent a second surgery to remove dead tissue inside of his body.
Hospital director Miriam Lapunikova said he underwent a CT scan and is currently awake and stable in an intensive care unit, but added his condition is still “very serious”.
Miriam Lapunikova said Robert Fico underwent a second surgery to remove dead tissue on Friday. Pic: AP
Deputy prime minister Robert Kaliniak also told reporters: “I think it will take several more days until we will definitely know the direction of the further development.”
While Mr Fico continued to recover from the attack – the first assassination attempt of a European political leader for more than 20 years – police brought the suspect to his home while they searched it.
Markiza, a Slovakian television station, showed footage of the suspect accompanied by police in the town of Levice and reported police had seized a computer and some documents.
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He was then escorted out and back into the police car.
The suspect was previously named as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula. He is said to be a writer and poet.
President-elect Peter Pellegrini said on Thursday that the prime minister is living “the worst hours and days of his life” after the shooting.
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If the “gunshot wounds were just a few millimetres either side, we would be talking about him as the late prime minister”, he said.
Mr Fico has long been a divisive figure. His return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American ticket led to worries among fellow EU and NATO members that he would turn his country further away from the Western mainstream.
Under his stewardship, the government has halted arms deliveries to Ukraine, and his opponents worry he will lead Slovakia in the footsteps of Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest against Mr Fico’s policies.
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