UK’s membership of CPTPP now official

Peru’s ratification of the UK’s accession to the Trans-Pacific trade partnership is the final piece to fall into place and clear the way for the UK to join the CPTPP on 15 December 2024. This gives us tariff-free access for most goods into the 11-member trade group.

For the meat industry, it certainly opens up some new opportunities, although we already have free trade agreements with many of the countries involved. But the main export focus will stay firmly on our nearest, biggest and most high-value market in Europe, where we can sell offal (a key component of meat exports and carcase balance) at near double the price of other markets in CPTPP countries.

Perhaps the longer term opportunity lies in countries that are not yet part of the trading block but may be admitted in the future. Of course, the ability to trade tariff free is a two way street, so one of the risks will be product coming the other way into the UK. We’ll be monitoring how these markets open up in the coming months and years. In the mean time, AHDB have a useful collection of articles and studies on the potential impact of joining the CPTPP.