[ti:Britain Hopes to Join Pacific Trade Deal] [00:00.00] [00:00.04]British officials say they hope their country will one day join [00:04.96]the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. [00:09.24]The TPP is currently being negotiated by 11 other countries. [00:15.36]All 11 have a border facing either the Pacific Ocean or the South China Sea. [00:22.80]The British government hopes trade with fast-growing economies [00:27.24]will make up for any losses that may take place [00:30.93]after it leaves the European Union (EU). [00:34.80]Britain's withdrawal from the EU, known as Brexit, is expected in 2019. [00:42.84]On a recent trip to China, Britain's Trade Minister, Liam Fox, [00:48.24]suggested his country might one day join the TPP. [00:52.92]"We don't know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like, [00:58.28]because it isn't yet negotiated," Fox said. [01:03.04]"So, it would be a little bit premature for us [01:06.60]to be wanting to sign up to something that we're not sure [01:10.56]what the final details will look like. [01:13.36]However, we have said that we want to be an open, outward-looking country, [01:19.40]and therefore it would be foolish for us [01:22.48]to rule out any particular outcomes for the future," he added. [01:28.04]London sits some 7,000 kilometers from any Pacific coastline. [01:34.76]So, is geography no longer an issue in 21st century trade? [01:41.88]Not so, says economist Jonathan Portes. [01:46.88]He works as a professor at Kings College London. [01:51.76]Portes says, "There has been an argument put forward [01:55.96]that, particularly as trade in services expands, [02:00.56]and as a result of technology, [02:03.32]it will matter considerably less in the future, [02:06.96]and that seems to make a lot of sense. [02:10.24]So far at least, the actual data and evidence don't really support this contention. [02:17.68]For whatever reason, geography at the moment [02:21.24]seems to matter as much as it ever did," he added. [02:25.55]By withdrawing from the EU's Single Market and Customs Union, [02:31.08]Britain will leave a free trade agreement that makes up about half of its foreign trade. [02:37.80]By comparison, the 11 countries now negotiating the TPP combined [02:44.42]accepted less than eight percent of all British exports last year. [02:50.92]Portes said it will take many years for Britain to profit from other trade deals. [02:57.20]He added that British companies have close ties with the European Union. [03:03.96]He thinks there will likely be problems because of Brexit. [03:09.16]The countries negotiating the TPP include Australia, [03:14.64]Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan and Mexico. [03:20.48]The others are New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. [03:28.36]Barack Obama, former president of the United States, [03:32.11]was a driving force behind TPP. [03:36.80]But the next president, Donald Trump, pulled the United States out of the deal, [03:42.64]saying it would be bad for America. [03:46.00]Negotiations between the 11 remaining countries continue slowly. [03:53.40]Because of the U.S. withdrawal, [03:56.12]"the TPP has its own internal problems," said Portes, [04:01.40]adding it will be a lot of work to fix those issues. [04:06.12]But Britain's interest in the TPP has been welcomed [04:10.60]by some of the countries involved, namely Australia. [04:15.68]British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to visit Asia later this year [04:21.84]in an attempt to strengthen relations before Brexit. [04:26.76]I'm Susan Shand.