LONDON – Britain’s Trade and Commerce Secretary Kemi Badenoch has formally signed a treaty confirming accession to the vast Indo-Pacific bloc CPTPP, the country’s biggest post-Brexit trade deal to date.

The deal, which was signed in New Zealand on Sunday, will now go through parliamentary scrutiny in the UK, while other CPTPP countries also complete their own legislative processes. More than 99% of current UK goods exported to CPTPP countries will soon be eligible for zero duties, the UK government has said.

11 members A comprehensive and progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, among others. The U.K. would be the first European nation to join the bloc, which the government says will unblock trade to a region with a combined GDP of 12 trillion pounds ($15.7 trillion).

It remains to be seen how much the deal actually benefits Britain’s growth prospects. Based on the government’s own estimates, domestic trade will increase in the long term GDP by only 0.08 percent, which will have little impact on offsetting European trade losses due to Brexit. The UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020.

Badenoch said on Sunday that Britain was using its status as an independent trading nation to join an “exciting, growing and forward-looking trading bloc”.

“[It] will help grow Britain’s economy and build on the hundreds of thousands of jobs that CPTPP-owned businesses already support across the country,” she said in a statement. One in 100 workers in Britain was employed by a CPTPP-based business. nation, according to the government, citing figures for year 2019.

Badenoch added that the deal “will open up huge opportunities and unrivaled access to a market of more than 500 million people”.

The trade pact evolved from the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which originated in the United States but fell apart after former President Donald Trump Trump canceled US participation.

Sean McGuire, director for Europe at the Confederation of British Industry, said the deal, along with Britain’s external and strategic global trade agenda, has “the potential to support export-led growth in critical sectors such as services and green technology. also increasing the resilience of our supply chains.”

“As one of the largest deals in the world, involving some of the world’s most dynamic markets, UK firms will be looking for new business and investment opportunities,” he said in an emailed statement.

—CNBC’s Sumathi Bala contributed to this article.