By Alexander Lee

On the 11th, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng (center), signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Auckland, New Zealand, and shook hands with Shigeyuki Goto, the Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization. (AP United News)

The United Kingdom has become the first European country to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a multilateral free trade agreement formed by Asia-Pacific countries. China and others have also applied for membership, and the number of participating countries is expected to increase.

Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, attended a meeting of member country ministers held in Auckland, New Zealand, on the 11th (local time) and signed the agreement. This is the first time a new member country has joined since the agreement was launched in December 2018 by 11 countries including Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Chile.

With this, the total economic scale of the participating countries has increased from 13% to 15% of the world. The UK's accession procedure will be completed once it is ratified by other member countries.

To offset the economic impact of Brexit, the UK applied to join the agreement in February 2021. The UK expects to export more meat, automobiles, and whiskey to other Asian member countries according to the agreement which is based on tariff elimination.

However, there are skeptical views on the economic effects of this agreement. According to estimates by the UK Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the economic effect of joining the agreement is expected to increase the UK's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by only 0.08% over 10 years. Minister Kwarteng said that there is "a lot of potential" due to participation in the agreement, as reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The predecessor of this agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was a giant multilateral free trade agreement initiated by the United States and Japan in the 2010s to lead the Asia-Pacific trade order. President Barack Obama said in 2016 that the TPP was the "core" of the US's "Asia pivot strategy." However, the agreement faced a crisis when the United States withdrew in 2017 during the Trump administration.

Japan then took the lead and renamed it the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and enacted it in December 2018. Since then, the number of countries wishing to join has been increasing. China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Ukraine have formally applied for membership. The South Korean government also announced in December 2021 that it would pursue joining the agreement.

Reporter Alexander Lee alexanderlee_24@newsyn.co.kr