The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) took effect Wednesday in Brunei, the last of the original 11 signatories to implement the trade pact.

Vietnam continues to back up Britain’s entry into a major trade pact, although the exact benefits for members are yet to be fully understood.

Though the UK is set to officially join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) later this year, it may not reap big benefits as desired, due to several agricultural and environmental reasons, besides its existing trade pacts with many of the CPTPP’s economies, including Vietnam.

The global multilateral trading system is under extreme pressure. The re-emergence of great power rivalry; the politicisation of trade; and the challenge China presents to the ‘Washington consensus’ mean that the conditions that helped facilitate the wave of globalisation seen at the end of last century and the beginning of this one is in jeopardy.

China will also reasonably reduce the negative list of foreign investment access and launch free trade pilot zones, among others.

Four types of fresh Vietnamese fruits, namely mango, longan, lychee, and dragon fruit, have been exported to the Australian market. However, expanding market share for these products is not easy because Australia sets strict requirements on labelling and food safety; some standards are even higher than those of the US and EU.

Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Hoang Long spoke of cooperation opportunities between Birmingham and Vietnam, especially its big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, in the fields of education-training, health care and culture, during his recent meeting with the city’s Lord Mayor Maureen Cornish.

China has both the willingness and capability to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and has been studying the terms, costs and benefits of joining the pact, said Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce.

Australia is Vietnam's second largest shrimp import market in the CPTPP market after Japan, accounting for 27% of Vietnam's total shrimp export value to this market.

China is actively advancing its accession to the DEPA and the CPTPP, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said on Saturday at the second Pearl River International Trade Forum, during the 133rd China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair.