U.K. seeks to conclude talks to join TPP by end-2022: FT

The U.K. seeks to conclude talks to join a trans-Pacific trade group by the end of 2022, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss told the Financial Times.

Truss said negotiations with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s 11 member countries would be the immediate focus for a “Global Britain” post-Brexit trade agenda, the paper reported. The trade bloc includes emerging economies such as Mexico and Vietnam, and advanced ones including Japan and Canada.

The trade secretary told the Financial Times that the CPTPP would let the U.K. benefit from “huge” economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, citing that two-thirds of the world’s middle class will live in Asia by 2030. She said the products they demand are the type of items that Britain produces—from high-value manufactured goods to data products and financial services. 

The European Union will be a smaller proportion of the world economy in the next few decades while CPTPP members will take a bigger share, the paper cited Truss as saying.