Free trade nation

A vision for UK trade policy on our accession to CPTPP

The UK has today officially joined CPTPP as a fully-fledged member
– Department for Business and Trade, 15 December 2024

Promotional graphic for Plan A+, which is coming to fruition

As I write on 15 December 2024, the UK has officially joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), taking GDP of members to £12 trillion. It is part of the fulfilment of a trade strategy for which I fought hard.

On resigning from the Department for Exiting the EU, I insisted the ERG publish a paper on the border on the island of Ireland, the decisive issue behind the “Chequers” Brexit-in-name-only deal. That was part of a sustained campaign for legal autonomy which is well recorded elsewhere. It included supporting the work of the then Legatum Institute Special Trade Commission led by my friend Shanker Singham – here is their blueprint for UK trade policy – and then supporting Plan A+: Creating a prosperous post-Brexit UK. Along the way, frequent trade minister Greg Hands co-chaired the Alternative Arrangements Commission by Prosperity UK, setting out what could be done about our border with Ireland.

At every step, we were resisted ferociously and condemned. Today, albeit with a tricky compromise over Northern Ireland, the UK is implementing the strategy which I and others could plainly state before I joined the Government in 2017.

Today, it is possible for an interventionist world to enjoy free trade without anti-democratic political integration. It is a transformational success of global significance won at unnecessarily great cost. I am proud to have played my part in it.