The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, known in Spanish as TIPAT) is regarded as the first “nextgeneration” trade agreement and has served as a reference point for more recent international trade frameworks that seek to strengthen global commerce, such as the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). The CPTPP, comprising Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and most recently the United Kingdom, the agreement aims to deepen economic integration among its members by reducing tariff barriers and aligning rules in areas such as trade in services, investment, government procurement, trade facilitation, and labor and environmental provisions.
The CPTPP is the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Following the United States’ withdrawal in 2017, the remaining participants chose to preserve the agreement’s core structure and maintain continuity of commitments through the CPTPP, introducing adjustments—including the suspension of certain provisions—to ensure its viability. Its importance lies in expanding preferential access to strategic markets, providing greater regulatory certainty for trade and investment, and strengthening regional competitiveness under a shared rules-based framework, positioning it as one of the world’s most significant next-generation trade agreements.
After the 2016 referendum, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland formally withdrew from the European Union (EU) on January 31, 2020, and fully exited the Single Market and the Customs Union at the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. This shift prompted the UK government to pursue an independent trade policy strategy and to seek new international agreements that would grant preferential market access.
In this context, the United Kingdom submitted its request to accede to the CPTPP on February 1, 2021; negotiations concluded with the signing of the Accession Protocol in July 2023. The agreement subsequently entered into force for the United Kingdom on December 15, 2024, with those members that had completed ratification in time, and its application has expanded as other Agreement Parties finalize their respective internal ratification procedures.
For Mexico, the Senate of the Republic—acting under the authority conferred by Article 76, Section I of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States—approved the Accession Protocol of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, signed in Auckland and Bandar Seri Begawan on July 16, 2023. This was made official through its publication in Mexico’s Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación, DOF in Spanish) on January 20, 2026, thereby bringing it into force for Mexico upon completion of its internal ratification process.
For Mexico, the United Kingdom’s accession to the CPTPP brings tariff benefits mainly in two areas. First, it consolidates and expands preferential access to the UK market under the CPTPP framework (with several products eligible for zero tariffs or scheduled tariff reductions, depending on the relevant tariff elimination schedules), complementing the preferences Mexico already maintained with the UK after Brexit through the Continuity Agreement. Second, it enables operational advantages typical of the CPTPP, such as cumulation of origin among the Parties, which allows inputs from CPTPP countries (including the UK) to be incorporated while still qualifying for preferential treatment—facilitating regional supply chains and improving the effective use of preferential tariffs when rules of origin are met using inputs from across the CPTPP region, thereby expanding the origin scope previously available under the UK Continuity Agreement.
J.A. DEL RÍO offers a wide array of specialized consulting services to assist you with these and other matters, in order to ensure that your project complies with the applicable characteristics contained in this agreement.
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