Downing Street said in a statement that the United Kingdom will become the first European country to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc. Eleven countries have signed the treaty so far, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
“British businesses will now enjoy unprecedented access to markets from Europe to the South Pacific,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. The Prime Minister said that in the long term, accession would add 1.8 billion pounds (about 2 billion euros) to the country’s economic output.
His predecessor, Boris Johnson, applied to join the free trade bloc in January 2021. After the country left the European Union in 2020, the UK was desperately searching for new trading partners. Sunak expects more countries to join in the future.
The United States is not among the signatory countries to the agreement. Under President Barack Obama, the country was once the driving force behind the trade agreement, then known as the TPP, which was intended to serve as a counterweight to China’s economic power. However, his successor, Donald Trump, was not interested and ended the discussions. Current US President Joe Biden has also not yet shown any interest in joining the agreement
