Report: U.K. may join TPP post Brexit

The United Kingdom is seeking additional trade deals to make up for loss of trade with the European Union once the Brexit process is complete, according to multiple media reports.    The United Kingdom is in preliminary talks to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement once it leaves the European Union, according to a report from the Financial Times.
   The U.K. is seeking additional trade relations to bolster exports after Brexit, though the government notes it is in the early days of signing trade deals. If the U.K. does join the TPP, it would be the first member of the trade agreement not on the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea.
   In an interview with the Financial Times, U.K. Trade Minister Greg Hands said, “Nothing is excluded in all of this. With these kinds of plurilateral relationships, there doesn’t have to be any geographical restriction.”
   The TPP was thought to be dismantled when the United States pulled out of the deal early last year, but the remaining nations have been working towards moving forward without the U.S.
   Trade experts are not convinced that the TPP would benefit the U.K., however. Labour MP and Open Britain supporter Chuka Umunna told BBC that new trade deals “would not come close to making up for lost trade with the EU after a hard Brexit.”
   According to Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, the U.K. risks holding “little leverage in talks” if it did join the TPP. “Nations are highly unlikely to reopen negotiations on sensitive matters, simply to accommodate the U.K.,” he said. Furthermore, “given the urgency to seal a deal, the UK would be a ‘price taker’ on the terms of the pact, particularly in areas like pharmaceuticals, state-owned enterprises, labour and the environment,” according to the BBC.
   “If Brexit was about symbolically taking back control in these areas, then joining the TPP would do little to accomplish that,” said Connelly.