UK ACCESSION TO THE COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP)
The CPTPP is a trade agreement to which Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam are currently members.
The UK signed its accession agreement to the CPTPP on 16 July 2023.
The UK will accede to the CPTPP when either of the following conditions are met:
2 months after at least 6 of the 11 current members ratify the agreement (in other words if 1 more CPTPP member ratifies in July the UK will accede in September), or
15 months after the agreement was signed.
As of June 2024 the UK’s accession has been fully ratified by 5 CPTPP members:
Japan. 6/12/23
Singapore 23/1/24
Chile 3/4/24
New Zealand 4/6/24
Vietnam 23/6/24
Therefore, the UK will accede to CPTPP sometime in the next 3 months, unless the new UK government decides to back away which seems unlikely, and October 2024 is the latest possible date for UK accession.
The rules of origin under CPTPP for products manufactured in and traded between CPTPP members are considerably less restrictive than those contained in UK bilateral trade agreements with CPTPP members including Australia, Canada, Japan and Viet Nam. The CPTPP allows exporters to self-declare origin status of their goods and the documentation is much simpler, with no real restrictions on the format (as long as certain necessary information is included). Furthermore, goods can be transhipped via other CPTPP members without loss of origin status. These changes will benefit exporters/importers trading between CPTPP member countries and greatly simplify origin compliance.
