UK to join Indo-Pacific trade bloc in biggest trade deal since Brexit

Published

1 year ago

March 31, 2023

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The UK is set to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – known as CPTPP – in what the government says is its biggest trade deal since Brexit.

The CPTPP is a free trade agreement between 11 countries across the Indo-Pacific – namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

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.

When it joins, the UK will become 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”.

The deal has been praised by a number of business groups, including the CBI, Standard Chartered and Pernod Ricard.

But other trade experts have warned it will not make up for the economic hit caused by leaving the trade bloc of the European Union.

Zero tariffs for cheese, cars, chocolate and gin

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 after the UK joins, it will be worth 15% of global GDP.

Number 10 said as a result of becoming a member, more than 99% of goods exported from the UK to the list of countries would be eligible for zero tariffs, including cheese, cars, chocolate, machinery, gin and whisky.

And it said the services industry would benefit too, with “reduced red tape and greater access to growing Pacific markets”.

Commenting on the announcement, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the agreement “puts the UK at the centre of a dynamic and growing group of Pacific economies”.

He added: “We are at our heart an open and free-trading nation, and this deal demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms.

“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.”

The final administrative and legal steps will now take place, before the UK formally signs up in 2023.

‘EU should be priority’

The announcement was welcomed by the interim director general of business group the CBI, Matthew Fell, who called it “a real milestone for the UK and for British industry”.

He added: “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.”

However, while the Institute of Directors it was “vital the UK signs trade deals to restore our international reputation since Brexit”, it said “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”.

They added: “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.

“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.”

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Israel-Hamas war: Hostage’s parents tell him ‘stay strong’ after video shows him alive but missing part of arm

Published

2 hours ago

April 25, 2024

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Israel-Hamas war: Hostage's parents tell him 'stay strong' after video shows him alive but missing part of arm

The parents of an Israeli hostage have told him “we love you, stay strong, survive” after he appeared with part of his arm missing in a video released by Hamas.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the Nova musical festival when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

The video shows him with his lower left arm missing; witnesses said it was blown off when he helped throw grenades out of a shelter where people were hiding.

Middle East latest: Hezbollah dismisses ‘worthless’ Israeli claims on commanders killed

He reportedly used his shirt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding, but was captured.

Clearly under duress in the undated video, the 23-year-old criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying they should be “ashamed” for not securing the hostages’ release.

He also claims Israeli bombings have killed “about 70 detainees like me” and that the rest are living in an “underground hell without water, food, or sun”.

Mr Goldberg-Polin, who wears a red shirt and sits against a plain white wall, finishes with an appeal to his parents, telling them “stay strong” and “I love you so much, and miss you so much”.

His parents responded to Wednesday’s video by filming their own emotional response.

Jon Polin says hearing his son for the first time in more than 200 days is “overwhelming”.

“We are relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all the other hostages, and all of those suffering in this region,” he says.

Mr Polin calls for the countries involved in negotiations to “be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done to reunite all of us with our loved ones and end the suffering in this region”.

His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, stares resolutely into the camera and tells him: “Hersh, if you can hear his, we heard your voice today for the first time in 201 days… I am telling you – we are telling you – we love you, stay strong, survive.”

The 23-year-old was born in California but moved to Jerusalem with his family when he was younger.

He was among about 250 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped in the initial Hamas attack, which also killed around 1,200 people.

Some hostages were freed in a deal last year, but more than 100 are still unaccounted for and there is huge pressure in Israel for the government to bring them home.

Israel’s aim to wipe out Hamas has so far killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authority.

Hundreds of thousands are also said to be on the brink of starvation and have been forced to flee the violence.

Fears are growing that a ground assault on the southern city of Rafah – where more than a million people are sheltering – is imminent after Mr Netanyahu said Israel was “moving ahead” with its plans.

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Israel underground bunker hospital preparing for worst-case scenarios

Published

2 hours ago

April 25, 2024

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Israel underground bunker hospital preparing for worst-case scenarios

Deep below Jerusalem, Israeli doctors are preparing for the worst.

Sky News has been given exclusive access to an underground hospital where they are expanding capacity in case the current conflict becomes much worse.

In a bunker below the Herzog Medical Centre, the number of beds has been increased to 350 – with 100 on the way.

Middle East latest: Hamas releases hostage video

“Because it’s built to withstand both biological and chemical attacks,” Dr Yehezkel Caine told Sky News as we entered the complex, “we have an airlock which is built of two separate sets of blast doors”.

Beyond they have installed a whole new level of wards below the existing underground hospital, ripping out a logistics floor and installing more beds and equipment.

The bunkers would be activated should other hospitals closer to the front need evacuating.

They are planning for worst-case scenarios here like an all-out war with Hezbollah.

“The hospitals in the north will be overwhelmed with casualties and they themselves will come under fire, in which case they would have to evacuate their patients to the centre of the country, the same as we did in the first weeks of the war in the south,” said Dr Caine.

He and his staff know the 7 October attack last year by Hamas and Iran‘s missile and drone barrage earlier this month have changed everything for the people of Israel.

“For the civilian population since the war of independence we’ve never been in a situation where the threat to the civilian population has been as great,” he said.

Above ground, the Herzog Medical Centre continues with its peacetime specialisms.

It has Israel’s largest ventilator unit, treating adults and children, but also excels in psycho-trauma treatment and geriatric rehabilitation.

Many of those suffering PTSD from the trauma in this conflict are treated here.

If Jerusalem itself is attacked, the hospital can evacuate even the most vulnerable to the bunkers below in just a few hours.

The bunkers can be entirely sealed off for 96 hours in what’s called a Noah’s Ark procedure.

The Herzog drills its staff regularly. Preparing for a reality it hopes will never come. But events on the northern border are looking ominous.

Israel has launched one of its biggest bombardments yet of Lebanon’s Hezbollah after multiple shelling of northern Israeli communities.

The lower-level war continues with the ever-present danger of escalation into something much bigger.

If it comes, doctors in Jerusalem’s biggest underground hospital say they’ll be ready.

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Paris Olympics: 16-year-old arrested after he said he wanted to ‘die a martyr’ at Games

Published

5 hours ago

April 24, 2024

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Paris Olympics: 16-year-old arrested after he said he wanted to 'die a martyr' at Games

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested by anti-terrorism police in France after he allegedly said on social media he wanted to “die a martyr” at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

A spokesperson said on Wednesday the boy was arrested after he “publicly announced on social media that he planned to create an explosive belt to become a martyr”.

The teenager was arrested at his parents’ home on Tuesday after the alleged posts on Telegram the day prior, BFMTV reported.

The French outlet also reported that a search of the teenager’s home found handwritten papers in which he allegedly declared support for Islamic State.

The spokesperson said that an investigation was under way into whether he had genuine intentions to commit a terrorist act.

It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron previously admitted that the Olympics opening ceremony could be scaled down if the security threat is deemed too high.

Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and continuing conflict in the Middle East, France previously raised its security alert to its highest level.

The government also asked 45 foreign countries to contribute several thousand extra military, police and civilian personnel to help safeguard the games, Reuters reports.

Earlier this month, Mr Macron said he was confident the opening ceremony, planned to take place on the River Seine, would go ahead but that France had “plan Bs, and even plan Cs” just in case.

This came in the face of concerns over potential security threats to the Games.

The 26 July event is set to be the first Olympic opening ceremony held outside a stadium setting and will see about 10,500 athletes parade through the heart of the French capital on some 160 boats on the Seine along a 3.7-mile route.

But if issues did arise, Mr Macron said that the ceremony could be restricted to the central Paris Trocadero square, facing the Eiffel Tower.

Another option would be to move the event indoors, to the Stade de France.