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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   37950 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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Roughly a month after hammering out the Windsor Agreement to settle Northern Irish trade, the United Kingdom has also finally joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership. What a bizarre trajectory the nation has travelled through from Brexit back to fulfilling David Cameron's hopes of joining the Asian multilateral trade deal.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the move early Friday, hailing it as a historic move that could help lift economic growth in the country by £1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) in the long run.

“The bloc is home to more 500 million people and will be worth 15% of global GDP once the UK joins,” Sunak’s office said.

The CPTPP is a free trade agreement with 11 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. It succeeded the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the United States withdrew under former President Donald Trump in 2017 . . .

As a member, more than 99% of UK exports to those 11 countries will now be eligible for tariff-free trade. That includes major exports, such as cheese, cars, chocolate, machinery, gin and whisky.

In the year through September 2022, the United Kingdom exported £60.5 billion ($75 billion) worth of goods to CPTPP countries, Sunak’s office said in a statement.

Dairy farmers, for example, sent £23.9 million ($29.6 million) worth of products such as cheese and butter to Canada, Chile, Japan and Mexico last year, and were set to “benefit from lower tariffs,” it added.

The deal also aims to lift red tape for British businesses, which will no longer be required to set up local offices or be residents of the pact’s member countries to provide services there.

Services made up a huge chunk — 43% — of overall UK trade with CPTPP members last year, according to Sunak’s office.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the deal to say much intelligent, but was hoping people could share what they think the implications the new deal will entail.

It's not really bizarre. One of the arguments for Brexit was that the EU had to approve all new trade deals and it wasn't approving any new trade deals.

So Britain ended up being stuck in trade policies designed to protect things like farming in French Overseas Territories.

I don't know any of the specifics of what the TPP includes, but trade without Eurocrats micromanaging every shop in Britain was the point.

What makes it bizzare is giving up on trade integration with the EU, which it's right next to, where "UK exports to the EU were £267 billion (42% of all UK exports). UK imports from the EU were £292 billion (45% of all UK imports)" in exchange for smoother trade with "exports of £60.5 billion ($75 billion)".

I'm fairly sure we do actually still trade with the EU, so it's not trading one for another.

It's just being loosed from the clutches of a controlling and bitter spouse.

It's like for like, you traded with CPTPP countries before the agreement too!

Not all about trade though is it, the EU comes with a shitload of albatrosses tethered to its neck that have nothing to do with trade.

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