U.K. has much to offer as a CPTPP member

The global economy is facing multiple headwinds as it builds back from the pandemic and the world pushes back against Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and tackles climate change.

Global cooperation is vital to tackle these challenges, and international trade has a crucial role to play in providing stability, prosperity and growth.

This year, the Indo-Pacific region has an opportunity to cement deeper multilateral relations and strengthen international trade as the U.K. aims to complete negotiations to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The U.K. is a major investor in economies across this region, and CPTPP accession will build even closer ties for the years ahead.

As of 2021, the stock of investment from the U.K. in CPTPP members reached 117.3 billion pounds ($141.6 billion). That figure included over 43 billion pounds invested in financial services and over 7 billion pounds put into professional, technical and scientific services.

If the 11 members of the CPTPP are considered together, the bloc ranks as the fourth-highest recipient of foreign direct investment from the U.K. It can only be expected to rise further after U.K. accession to the group.

U.K. membership will take the CPTPP from a Pacific agreement to a truly global one, with influence to shape and defend the rules of international trade. The GDP of the CPTPP will grow from 9 trillion pounds to 11 trillion pounds, or from 12.2% of global gross domestic product to 15.4%.

With a market of 67 million consumers and the world's sixth-largest economy, the U.K. will be the second-biggest member of the bloc and an attractive market for other CPTPP participants.

Yet membership is about more than just economic heft. Accession will help countries across the region to diversify their supply chains and seek new market opportunities to build stronger economic resilience. U.K. membership will help businesses trade more easily across borders and will help make critical supply chains more open and predictable.

The nature and distribution of global power is changing as we move toward a more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. We hope, through our accession to the CPTPP, to help reinforce parts of the international architecture that are under threat from unfair trading practices.

The U.K. will be a strong voice on the global stage, making the case for our shared values, high standards and closer partnerships.

We will use our membership of global institutions such as the Group of Seven and the Group of 20, our status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and our diplomatic network, the world's fourth-largest, to champion the broader shared values of the CPTPP, such as tackling climate change, growing the green economy and developing digital standards.

The bloc already serves as a coalition of the like-minded to support the rules-based international order. The U.K. can also help countries achieve broader objectives, for instance on diversifying energy sources.

The U.K. is a global leader in offshore wind and is ready to support our partners. With nearly 13 gigawatts of installed capacity, the U.K. is the largest offshore wind market in Europe and the second-largest in the world.

We are targeting 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030, more than enough to power every home in the U.K., which could result in 95% of Great Britain's electricity being low-carbon by 2030.

The U.K. is home to a technology sector worth over $1 trillion and is one of only three nations in the world to reach this landmark valuation. We champion making cyberspace safe and secure, with strong consumer protections and open, free digital markets that can enable the next generation of entrepreneurs to flourish.

Last year, investment in the U.K. tech sector overtook that of China. More than half of the U.K.'s "decacorns," startups valued at more than $10 billion, were founded by people from overseas. The U.K.'s new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, meanwhile, will develop the digital economies of the future.

The U.K. is also a champion of global education, and a ready partner on science, innovation and development with economies across the region. The U.K. has 90 world-class universities and four in the global top 10. The quality of U.K. academic research ranks as best among the G-7 and other comparator countries, and has done so every year since 2007.

The U.K.'s accession to the CPTPP this year would be a major boon to the region, building global investor confidence and cementing trade ties for stronger economies. While we all face mutual challenges, there are reasons for optimism over the future of multilateral trade.

Source: Nikkei Asia