The areas include generous rules of origin and prohibition of the requirement to maintain a local presence to deliver services.
There are key areas where the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership goes further than some existing pacts that the UK has with nine of the 11 CPTPP members, a House of Commons panel has concluded.
There are also opportunities for the UK to show leadership and expertise, particularly in digital trade and environmental policy.
The CPTPP could play a role in helping to shape trading rules and norms. Although the committee’s evidence is incomplete, there are areas on digital trade and the environment where the CPTPP has contributed to progress in multilateral fora.
There are clear advantages in the United Kingdom contributing to these efforts, particularly as like-minded partners are turning to plurilateral blocs, rather than the ‘lignified’ World Trade Organisation, for digital and environmental policy innovation, the committee said.
“There are also opportunities within the CPTPP for the UK to show leadership and expertise, particularly in digital trade and environmental policy, where the UK has proven to be a global leader. It also needs to ensure that the CPTPP’s structures support the UK’s agenda by calling for a permanent CPTPP secretariat that can support enlargement and modification of the agreement,” an official release quoted the committee report as saying.
The UK’s accession to the CPTPP also comes with a set of challenges. Witnesses raised issues with the agreement’s provisions for investment protection, intellectual property requirements and food standards and animal welfare, the report noted.
The parts of the CPTPP which affect these areas are seemingly small and technical, but misalignment of these provisions with current practices in the UK could jeopardise important public policy aims and damage business confidence, it said.
In particular, the committee looked at the impact China’s accession could have on the CPTPP’s high standards. It is a significant risk, but the United Kingdom will be well placed to address that as accession to the CPTPP comes with the power of veto over prospective new members, the committee noted.
The government has two months to respond to this report.
The committee’s inquiry was launched in November 2021 and its findings were planned to be submitted to the House of Commons later this year, following examination of the UK’s terms of accession.
However, reorganisation of the House’s select committees to mirror changes to the machinery of government has necessitated the committee making its incomplete findings available to the House.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
