Tag: CPTPP

UK-EU Reset May Break International Law

By Prof. David Collins

For a government that has continually emphasized the importance of upholding international law, even when it is evidently against the national interest (for example the relinquishing of the Chagos Islands), the UK’s EU ‘reset’ agreement is a baffling development. The UK has evidently succumbed to all of the EU’s demands, gaining little more than vague statements in relation to defence procurement and e-gates in airports, while giving away fishing rights for an astonishing twelve years, free movement of young adults as well as budgetary contributions. Each of these is arguably a rejection of UK voters’ wishes to leave the EU but do not in themselves put the UK in breach of the country’s international legal obligations. The new agreement’s dynamic alignment with the EU’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations on the other hand could well do this, potentially leading to claims from other treaty partners via international arbitration tribunals.

The new UK-EU reset agreement effectively creates a single market for agri-foods in which the UK agrees to follow EU regulations, the ultimate conformity to which lies at the discretion of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This feature of the new arrangement was important for the EU because it ensures that the UK remains a captured market for its agricultural produce, preventing the UK from importing cheaper, better foods from other countries, ostensibly for the purpose of safeguarding public health.

It is bad enough that this worsens the choice available to British consumers from markets around the world. It is even more problematic, though, if, like Prime Minister Keir Starmer, one claims to be a supporter of and adherent to international law. This is because alignment with the EU’s regulations in this area may violate the terms of some of the UK’s recent Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). This includes the mega-regional Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which the UK joined after lengthy negotiations at the end of last year. The 12-nation CPTPP comprises 15 per cent of global GDP and some of the world’s fastest growing economies in the Asia-Pacific.

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The CPTPP as a New Regime for World Trade?

David Collins

Formal talks on the UK’s accession to the 11-nation Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) began this week after several months of preliminary negotiations. The fast-growing Asia-Pacific region served by the CPTPP promises to eclipse the economic activity of the rest of Europe, if not the world, well into the 21st Century. More than that, the CPTPP may be poised to establish itself as a near-global regime for trade governance in conjunction, or perhaps in competition with the 164 nation World Trade Organization (WTO). Covering matters such as tariff and non-tariff barriers on goods, market access for services, intellectual property and subsidies like the WTO, the CPTPP also has rules on digital trade and investment which the 26-year-old WTO, with all of the problems associated with needing global consensus, does not. Whereas momentum in multilateral trade liberalisation has stalled in recent years with little to no progress on the key issues of agricultural subsidies, fisheries or dispute settlement, interest in the CPTPP is picking up speed. Continue reading

UK Accession to the CPTPP: Setting a Precedent for New Members?

David Collins

The Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a comprehensive free trade agreement which went into force in December 2018. Its membership consists of 11 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia and Peru, together comprising roughly 13 per cent of the world’s GDP. Despite having no geographical presence in the Pacific (unless you include the British Overseas Territory the Pitcairn Islands), the UK submitted formal notice to join the CPTPP in February 2021, a centrepiece of its ‘Global Britain’ trade strategy.

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The new UK-Japan CEPA bodes well for Digital Trade

David Collins

It scarcely needs repeating that trade in digital products and services has become essential to the economy of both the UK and the world. The Covid-19 epidemic has accelerated this trend, with the result that rules governing this sphere of economic activity will only become more important over time. While it has lagged relative to other areas, international law governing digital trade is beginning to take shape and the UK quite rightly aims to be at the forefront of these developments.

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