Brexiteers and analysts predict that when Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch signs a new big trade pact with 11 of the world’s fastest-growing economies on Saturday, hopes of re-entering the EU will be extinguished.
Ms Badenoch will officially sign the agreement allowing the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) at 10.30pm UK time on Saturday in New Zealand, launching Britain on a new path as a global nation post-Brexit.
The UK’s membership in the new trade bloc will provide it with unrestricted access to a combined market worth £12 trillion in GDP made up of 11 separate countries.
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam are among them.
However, unlike EU membership, the UK will not be forced to agree to free movement of people and unfettered immigration.
According to David Campbell Bannerman, a major Brexiteer who worked on the European Parliament’s trade committee for many years, the deal will ensure that Britain’s future is more prosperous outside of the EU.
“It closes the door on a return to the costly and protectionist EU Single Market and the EU and opens the door for deals with the US and Latin America via this mega market – far larger than the EU but without its suffocating bureaucracy and diktats.”