The UK became the first European nation to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on Sunday, an Indo-Pacific trade bloc that includes Australia and Canada.
The UK is the 12th country to join the CPTPP, after years of negotiations. Britain's application to be admitted to the trade bloc was first submitted in 2021. The UK government predicts membership of CPTPP will bring billions into Britain's struggling economy, and it will now immediately apply trade rules and lower tariffs with most of the pact's members. Eight CPTPP members earlier ratified the entrance of the UK, including Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia and Brunei. A period of 60 days has to elapse between ratification and admission. Because Australia ratified slightly later, the CPTPP rules won't apply to it and the UK before December 24. Canada and Mexico have yet to finally rubber-stamp the UK's membership, but officials expect that to happen in the near future.
"Britain is uniquely placed to take advantage of exciting new markets, while strengthening existing relationships," UK business and trade minister, Jonathan Reynolds, said. "Today's news is further proof that the UK is a wonderful place to do business, with an open, outward-looking economy driving the growth people can feel in their communities.
"Agreements like this boost trade and create opportunities for UK companies abroad. This is a proven way to support jobs, raise wages and drive investment across the country, which is key to this Government's mission to deliver economic growth," he added.
Meanwhile, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who was trade secretary when the UK formally agreed to join the bloc in 2023, said the deal "brings enormous benefits to everyone from British farmers to fintech and small businesses to the largest manufacturers. The deal places the UK in a bloc with the fastest-growing economies in the world and was a key Brexit benefit to add to our EU trade deal".
The UK government estimates the pact may be worth £2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) a year in the long run, which would be less than 0.1 per cent of GDP. Also, joining the CPTPP was also a far less complicated process than negotiating a post-Brexit deal with the EU. The CPTPP is not a single market like the European Union and, as such, regulatory harmonisation was not required. Any future deal between the UK and EU, however, would have to take such harmonisation into account.
The pact represents Britain's first free trade deals with Malaysia and Brunei. The CPTPP has its roots in the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was developed in part to counter China's growing economic dominance. However, that collapsed after then President Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2017. From that collapse the CPTPP took shape. Costa Rica is the next country set to join the trade pact, with Indonesia also expressing a desire for membership.
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
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- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
