Britain is hoping to sign up to a £9 trillion free-trade pact with nations across the globe including Australia, Malaysia and Canada.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is due to speak to foreign ministers tomorrow to ask to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The government announced its ambition to become the first new country to join the partnership today, exactly one year since Britain formally left the EU.

Signing up will cut trading tariffs with the 11 CPTPP members, which also includes Mexico, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Brunei, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand.

It will not require Britain to give up control of our ‘laws, borders or money’, Ms Truss said in a statement.

Businesses including car manufacturers and whisky producers are set to benefit from lower tariffs, ministers say, with formal negotiations expected to begin later this year.

UK trade with the group was worth £111 billion in 2019, according to the Government.

Ms Truss insisted joining the pact would ‘create enormous opportunities for UK businesses that simply weren’t there as part of the EU’.

‘We’re at the front of the queue and look forward to starting formal negotiations in the coming months,’ she added.

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