After Australia and Japan, the United Kingdom on Wednesday announced a post-Brexit trade deal with New Zealand, bolstering its ambition to integrate the Trans-Pacific trade treaty.
The deal was struck during a video call between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday, the British Foreign Trade Ministry said in a statement.
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“This is an excellent trade agreement for the United Kingdom, cementing our longstanding friendship with New Zealand and our ties with the Indo-Pacific region,” Boris Johnson said in the statement.
Labor opposition condemned a deal
Wednesday’s agreement with New Zealand will “reduce red tape for businesses, end tariffs on British exports and create new opportunities for technology and services companies”, according to the British government, which recalls that trade with Wellington has been in place in the past. The year was £2.3 billion. .
But the Labor opposition has condemned a deal that “only benefits the mega-corporations that run New Zealand’s meat and milk farms” at the expense of British farmers.
“For jobs, growth and British exports, this agreement is another major failure,” Emily Thornberry, labor officer in international trade, said in a statement.
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multiplication of trade agreements
The UK hopes the deal will help open the doors to the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Partnership (CPTPP), “a free trade area of 11 countries, with a GDP of $8.4 trillion in 2020,” the statement said. Government.
Notably signed by New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Japan, it is the most important free trade agreement in the region. The United Kingdom formally applied to join last February.
Since leaving the European Union, which became a reality on 1 January, London has entered into trade agreements with the European Union, Japan and Australia, or with European countries that are not members of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
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The country officially began talks in early October for a free trade agreement with six Arab Gulf countries and went on to strengthen its trade ties with the United States, without being able to get a promise from Washington for some time. Also asking for.