The moment Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch signs a new mega trade deal with 11 of the world’s fastest-growing economies on Sunday will kill off Remainers’ hopes to take Britain back into the EU, Brexiteers and experts have claimed.
The historic moment will take place at 10.30pm UK time tomorrow in New Zealand when Ms Badenoch sets Britain on to a new path as a global nation post-Brexit by officially signing the document to allow the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The entry to the new trade bloc will give the UK unfettered access to a combined market worth £12trillion in GDP made up of 11 other different nations.
These include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
But unlike membership of the EU single market the UK will not be forced to agree to free movement of people and unrestricted immigration.
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David Campbell Bannerman, a leading Brexiteer who as an MEP served for many years on the European Parliament’s trade committee, said that the deal will ensure that Britain’s future is more prosperous outside the EU.
He said: “Joining CPTPP is like the fork in the road where the UK avoids immersion within a declining economic interventionist Europe and turns instead towards the largest growing markets in the world – in the Asia-Pacific.
“It closes the door on a return to the costly and protectionist EU Single Market and the EU and opens the door for deals with the US and Latin America via this mega market – far larger than the EU but without its suffocating bureaucracy and diktats.”
Meanwhile, former Brexit minister David Jones highlighted how it could soon open the door to a new trade deal with the US.
He noted that America may rejoin the CPTPP.
Mr Jones said: “This is a tremendous achievement by the Government.
“The CPTPP is the most dynamic trading bloc in the world, with a population of over 500 million mostly young and aspirational people.
“The UK could never have joined the CPTPP if it were still a member of the EU.
“Furthermore, this is not an arrangement that requires us to surrender our sovereignty to a supranational, highly interventionist administration of the sort that prevails in Brussels.”
He added: “Outside the EU, the UK is spreading its wings and giving real meaning to the expression ‘Global Britain’. A free trade agreement with the United States, the country which is our single biggest trading partner, must be our next aim.”
The path to the CPTPP was begun under Liz Truss when she was International Trade Secretary.
The deal has already been hailed as a major boost for the City of London and Britain’s world-beating financial services which the EU always refused to include in the Single Market.
The City of London Corporation’s policy chairman Chris Hayward said: “The UK’s membership of CPTPP is a massive boost for the UK’s financial and professional services sector.
“Over half of exports destined to CPTPP nations are services-based.
“This deal will create further opportunities for the UK to increase regulatory cooperation with advanced provisions on digital trade, data and better market access which will benefit the entire economy.
“CPTPP is a living agreement which encourages increased membership. With the UK’s successful accession, Britain’s financial and professional service sector will continue to reap more benefits from the agreement over the years to come.”
Dudley North MP Marco Longhi, who is also the trade envoy to Japan, also highlighted the importance of a deal which will cover 99 percent of UK goods and services building on £240billion of trade already with the bloc and giving access to a market of 500 million people.
He said: “Joining the CPTPP and signing up to global trade partnerships and free trade agreements with several countries is a key Brexit benefit.
“We would not have been able to do so as a member of the EU.
“What this means for my Dudley constituents and people up and down the country is more trade, more jobs, and more job security. While we continue to trade with the EU as well.”
He added: “I remain confident and hopeful that one day the United States will also join the CPTPP bringing us all the benefits of hugely beneficial trading terms with our friends across the pond.”
