Skip to main content

The UK joined the Asia Pacific Trade.

Apta
 The UK today unveiled an agree­ment to join an 11-mem­ber Asia-Pacific trade bloc, with Prime Min­is­ter Rishi Sunak claim­ing it proved his gov­ern­ment was seiz­ing "post-Brexit freedoms".

Talks on Bri­tain becom­ing a mem­ber of the Com­pre­hens­ive and Pro­gress­ive Agree­ment for Trans-Pacific Part­ner­ship were finally wrapped up after two years of hag­gling over quotas and tar­iffs.
The UK will be the first coun­try to join the CPTPP since the group was estab­lished in 2018. Sunak said the trade deal would bring eco­nomic bene­fits and boost his "Asia-Pacific" tilt to for­eign policy.
Sunak said: "We are at our heart an open and free-trad­ing nation, and this deal demon­strates the real eco­nomic bene­fits of our post-Brexit freedoms.
Down­ing Street said more than 99 per cent of UK goods exports to CPTPP coun­tries would be eli­gible for zero tar­iffs, includ­ing products such as cheese, cars, chocol­ate, machinery, gin and whisky.
But the eco­nomic gains are min­imal, accord­ing to the gov­ern­ment’s own pro­jec­tions, and will do little to off­set the EU trade losses incurred as a res­ult of Brexit.
The gov­ern­ment estim­ates the CPTPP deal will increase gross domestic product in the long term by just 0.08 per cent, although it said that could rise if Thai­l­and and South Korea join the group.
The decision to join the CPTPP offers a strengthened eco­nomic pres­ence in a region that is pre­oc­cu­pied with how to respond to the rise of China, which itself has applied to join the trade bloc.
But the CPTPP deal is con­ten­tious, with spe­cial cri­ti­cism lev­elled at the decision to cut tar­iffs on imports of Malay­sian palm oil, the pro­duc­tion of which has been linked to the destruc­tion of rain­forest.
Daniela Mont­alto, head of forests at Green­peace UK, described the deal as "out­rageous", adding that cut­ting palm oil tar­iffs would only encour­age fur­ther destruc­tion.
Another con­ten­tious issue raised by the deal was access for beef from Canada. The coun­try’s beef is not on sale in the UK because its cattle are treated with hor­mones that are banned in Bri­tain.

Comments

  1. I agree that cutting palm oil tariffs will surely encourage further destruction. This is very clear and the UK shouldn't accept this. They should be and do better than this. I understand that there are benefits to joining this trade bloc but a country like the UK should demand some changes to bad practices.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

  The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

India- UK trade deal.

  According to India's top trade official, talks with the UK regarding a trade agreement are progressing well, despite obstacles related to temporary work visas and the opening up industries like automotive and spirits. The Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, explained that India is seeking transition periods or greater market access in specific sectors due to its economy, which is slightly larger than the UK's and expected to outgrow it in the coming decades. If a trade deal is reached, it would be one of the most significant agreements for Britain since leaving the EU, and it would also be necessary for India, which surpassed the UK as the fifth-largest economy last year. Goyal stated that India aims to increase its economy from $3.5tn to $35tn by 2047, the country's centenary of independence. According to officials and diplomats in India, talks about a proposed trade deal may be finished by early September, just in time for the G20 summit in New Delhi. Nigel Hu...

EU business slide.

  S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...