The UK Concludes Talks to Join CPTPP

After two years of negotiations, on 31 March, the UK Prime Minister announced the UK’s future accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade area of 11 countries spanning the Indo-Pacific, which includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

This comprehensive agreement will support UK businesses by making it easier for them to trade with CPTPP Parties.  Being part of the trade bloc will enable more than 99 percent of UK goods exports to CPTPP countries to be eligible for zero tariffs.

More importantly, the CPTPP includes a Cosmetics Annex which lays provisions that each party agrees to abide by when signing the trade deal.  Notably, the Cosmetics Annex specifies that no party should require a cosmetic product to:

• be labelled with a marketing authorisation or notification number;
• be accompanied by a Certificate of Free Sale (CFS) as a condition of marketing, distribution or sale in the Party’s territory;
• be tested on animals to determine its safety, unless there is no validated alternative method available to assess safety.

The full Cosmetics Annex can be read online. 

The UK and CPTPP members will now take the final legal and administrative steps required for the UK to formally sign in 2023.  More information on the UK concluding talks to join CPTPP can be found on the UK Government website.