Politeia, 15 September, David Collins
The UK’s two-year negotiations to join the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) concluded in March of this year with the UK signing its protocol of accession in mid-July. This is an important achievement on the part of the UK government realizing a key pillar of the Global Britain strategy. Together, the 12-nation pact comprises 15 per cent of global GDP and more than half a billion people. The Pacific region is also among the fastest-growing segments of the global economy. New accessions of Costa Rica and Korea appear imminent. Taiwan and the US, which created the original agreement, will hopefully sign on to the CPTPP in the coming years.
As with any signing of any international agreement, much is made of the degree to which the UK must surrender its national sovereignty in joining the CPTPP. But unlike membership in the EU, which required the regulation of wide swaths of the economy in a highly proscriptive, often prohibitive way, adherence to the CPTPP is based on mutual recognition. Parties commit broadly to opening their markets, with few limitations, promising to accept each-others’ laws as equivalent thereby precluding redundant, inefficient over-regulation. The UK’s market access commitments for goods, services and investment are similar to those offered by the original CPTPP signatories. This is encouraging because it confirms that CPTPP members will insist on a high standard of market liberalization as a condition of membership, ensuring the attractiveness of the agreement to future signatories.
In terms of imposing upon the UK’s regulatory autonomy, there are two features of the UK’s accession protocol worth mentioning in that they expressly enable UK domestic law to override international obligations of CPTPP membership.
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