TOKYO/LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2021) The countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) started negotiations on the possible inclusion of the United Kingdom into the agreement, Japan's Minister of Economic Revitalization, Nishimura Yasutoshi said Wednesday.
"If the UK, which is a global strategic partner, an important foreign trade and investment partner, joins the 11 TPP countries, we can build a free, fair economic order. It also makes deep strategic sense for strengthening Japanese-British economic relations," the official told reporters after a ministerial meeting as quoted by NHK.
A working group will be set up to lead the negotiations and procedures on the inclusion of the UK into the TPP. The start of negotiations on the inclusion of a new member of the agreement will be the first since the establishment of the partnership.
The UK government, which after leaving the European Union for good in December 2020 has been seeking free trade agreements with several countries, welcomed the invitation from the TPP nations to begin the accession process, claiming that joining the trade partnership will be a "huge opportunity" for the UK.
"It will help shift our economic centre of gravity away from Europe towards faster-growing parts of the world, and deepen our access to massive consumer markets in the Asia Pacific," UK International Trade secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
Truss said the government will publish its outline approach, scoping assessment and consultation response before negotiations start in the coming weeks.
The TPP is a trade agreement signed in February 2016 by 12 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The TPP aims to reduce tariff barriers as well as regulate internal rules in participating countries in areas such as labour law, environment, intellectual property and a number of others.
The Donald Trump administration pulled the US from the agreement, leaving 11 countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Japan Mexico and Peru.
