Trade (Comprehensive And Progressive Agreement For Trans-Pacific Partnership) Act 2024

Policy background

CPTPP implementation

2. The UK concluded negotiations to join the CPTPP on 31 March 2023 and signed the Protocol on the Accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (the "Accession Protocol") on 16 July 2023 1 . Entry into force of the agreement will take place once the UK and the requisite number of CPTPP Parties have finished their domestic processes for entry into force of the Accession Protocol. The Accession Protocol outlines the terms and conditions upon which the UK will accede to the CPTPP. The CPTPP largely incorporates the provisions set out in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (done at Auckland on 4 February 2016), with a small number of provisions suspended upon entry into force of the CPTPP. References in these explanatory notes to Articles and Chapters of the CPTPP mean the relevant Articles and Chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as incorporated into the CPTPP.
3. Certain parts of the CPTPP Chapters on Technical Barriers to Trade, Government Procurement, and Intellectual Property (Chapter numbers 8, 15, and 18 respectively) required the UK to create new primary legislation to provide for their implementation for the entry into force of the CPTPP for the UK. This legislative implementation of the obligations in the CPTPP is needed before entry into force of the Accession Protocol and the CPTPP for the UK to ensure that the UK is not in breach of them when they enter into force.

Technical barriers to trade

4. Conformity assessment procedures provide assurance that products meet relevant regulatory requirements. Examples of conformity assessment procedures are testing, certification and inspection. Some products require conformity assessment procedures to be carried out by third-party organisations called conformity assessment bodies ("CABs"). Some of the UK’s legislation requires these CABs to be based in the UK, Great Britain, or in a country with which the UK has a mutual recognition agreement.
5. When the CPTPP enters into force for the UK, the UK is required by Article 8.6 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as it is incorporated into the CPTPP, to ensure that CABs established in the territories of CPTPP Parties are treated no less favourably than CABs located domestically. To comply with this obligation, the UK must amend its legislation to allow CABs established in CPTPP Parties (for which the CPTPP is in force as between the UK and that Party) to apply for approval to carry out conformity assessment for the Great British market. The Act therefore confers a power on the Secretary of State to amend relevant legislation to enable this to occur.

Government procurement

6. The Government Procurement Chapter consists of (a) the text of the Chapter setting out the government procurement obligations and (b) the Schedules in an Annex to the Chapter, which set out the procurement market access coverage of each of the Parties. The text sets out rules for fair, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions of competition in government procurement. These rules do not automatically apply to all procurement activities of each Party. Rather, the Schedules determine which entities and procurements are covered by the scope of the Chapter and must follow the rules. Only government procurement activities by covered entities purchasing covered goods, services or construction services, of a value exceeding the specified thresholds, are within the scope of the CPTPP.
7. To implement the Chapter, the Act amends the UK’s government procurement legislative framework in two ways. Firstly, to give effect to the UK’s market access commitments to CPTPP suppliers. Secondly, and where applicable, the Act brings that framework into compliance with two technical rules of the Government Procurement Chapter. Those rules concern: (i) an exemption from the CPTPP rules for procurements organised and funded by international organisations, pursuant to Article 15.2.3(e)(ii) of the Chapter; and (ii) the information to be published following the award of a contract, pursuant to Article 15.16.3(d) of the Chapter. At Royal Assent of this Act, the UK’s procurement legislative framework is set out in regulations. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, those regulations will be replaced by the Procurement Act 2023 from substantive commencement of that Act, expected October 2024. For Scotland, the relevant regulations will endure. Accordingly, this Act amends both the regulations and the Procurement Act 2023.

Intellectual property

8. The Intellectual Property Chapter covers multiple forms of intellectual property ("IP"), including patents, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, trade secrets, trade marks and designs, as well as their enforcement. The text sets minimum standards of protection across these areas, creating a shared baseline of protection in CPTPP Parties’ domestic regimes.
9. The Act makes changes in relation to geographical indications, and copyright and related rights.
10. Geographical indications ("GIs") protect the names of products which have a special relationship with their geographical origin. A UK example is Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. Article 18.32 of the Intellectual Property Chapter sets out that procedures must be in place to allow interested persons to object to an application for the protection of a GI, and to seek the cancellation of a protected GI, on specified grounds.
11. To comply with this obligation, the Act amends domestic law (assimilated law, known as retained EU law before 01 January 2024) so that, in relation to agricultural products and foodstuffs ("agri-foods") only, an application to register a GI can be opposed on the ground it is likely to cause confusion with a pre-existing trade mark or application for a trade mark. The Act also introduces the ability to cancel a registered agri-food GI on the grounds that, as at the time the GI was applied for, it was likely to cause confusion with a pre-existing trade mark or application for a trade mark, or because it was a generic term. These new grounds will also apply at other stages related to applications to register a GI.
12. The amendments made by the Act will apply to both agri-food protected designations of origin ("PDOs") and agri-food protected geographical indications ("PGIs"). PDOs and PGIs are both categories of agri-food GIs in domestic law. References in these notes to GIs mean PGIs and PDOs.
13. In relation to copyright and related rights, each CPTPP Party is required to provide certain rights to performers and producers who meet the eligibility criteria for protection as specified in the CPTPP. Article 18.62.1 of the Intellectual Property Chapter sets out that CPTPP Parties are required to afford rights to:
    1. performers and producers of phonograms that are nationals of another CPTPP Party; and
    2. performances or phonograms first published or fixed in the territory of another CPTPP Party.
14. The eligibility criteria under the CPTPP by which performers can qualify for rights in their performances is wider than the criteria currently provided for in UK law. This means that some performers who should qualify for protection under the CPTPP when it enters into force for the UK would not get this. The Act therefore expands the eligibility criteria by which performers can qualify for rights in their performances in the UK.