When trade secretary Kemi Badenoch formally signed Britain up to the CPTPP Indo-Pacific trade bloc last weekend, it was the biggest shift in trade policy in a generation. Covering countries such as Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the CPTPP represents the world’s single largest trade bloc, with a combined GDP of $12trn, or 15% of global output. It is easily set to outstrip the EU, partly because all its members, with the possible exception of Japan, have much faster growth rates, and also because it is likely to recruit more members, and larger ones as well. China may well join one day, depending on the politics, and so might the US.
True, the Pacific is a lot further away than the EU, and apart from Japan and South Korea its…
