Pacific Trade Pact

The pact represents Britain's first free trade deals with Malaysia and Brunei, but while it had agreements with the other countries, CPTPP provisions go further, especially in giving companies choices

Taiwan has few international trade agreements due to its diplomatic isolation because of pressure from China, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory

Formerly known as the TPP, the agreement at one time included the US and was seen as a way of containing China's growing influence in the Asia Pacific

The UK has agreed to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact that includes Japan, Mexico and Australia the biggest new trade deal Britain has struck since leaving the European Union three years ago. The British government said Friday that it had clinched an agreement after almost two years of negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP. The government said membership would reduce tariffs on British dairy products and other goods and remove red tape for services, boosting the UK economy by 1.8 billion pounds "in the long run". Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deal "demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms". "Joining the CPTPP trade bloc puts the U.K. at the centre of a dynamic and growing group of Pacific economies, as the first new nation and first European country to join," Sunak said. The deal comes as the UK pursues an "Indo-Pacific tilt" in its economic and foreign policy in response to the ...

The British government said negotiating teams will be working over the coming months to join the 11-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

The pact, which was conceived as a counterweight to China's rising economic power in the region, had been negotiated under the Obama administration but never approved by Congress