UK inks biggest trade deal after Brexit

The UK will join 11 other countries in a major Asia-Pacific trade partnership, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on March 31, in the country's biggest post-Brexit trade deal following nearly two years of talks

Britain will be the first new member since the creation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in 2018, and the first European country in the bloc.

The trade grouping will include more than 500 million people and account for 15 percent of global GDP once the UK becomes its 12th member, according to Sunak's office.

It said Britain's admission -- after 21 months of "intense negotiations" -- puts the country "at the heart of a dynamic group of economies" and was evidence of "seizing the opportunities of our new post-Brexit trade freedoms".

The development fulfils a key pledge of Brexit supporters that, outside the European Union, the UK could capitalise on joining other trade blocs with faster-growing economies than those closer to home.

Critics have argued that such ventures will struggle to compensate for the economic damage sustained by leaving the EU, the world's largest trading bloc and collective economy.

"We are at our heart an open and free-trading nation, and this deal demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms," Sunak said in a statement announcing the deal.

"As part of CPTPP, the UK is now in a prime position in the global economy to seize opportunities for new jobs, growth and innovation."

The CPTPP is the successor to a previous trans-Pacific trade pact that the United States withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Its members include fellow G7 members Canada and Japan, and historic UK allies...