Captain Haddock wrote:... our new Trans-Pacific trade deal... does further liberalise trade between us and a group of economies whose share of global GDP and world trade is rising fast (whereas the EU’s shares are falling) and other fast-growing economies are queuing to join. That’s obviously a good thing for our 21st century trade.
But we should still be seeking a far better free trade deal than the one we have with the EU, which includes our closest trading partners and remains a huge (if declining) chunk of global GDP.
The CPTPP may be a good thing for our trade, but I don't see that it's obviously so. The Customs duties of non-free trade are designed to protect home producers from imports, on the assumption that the duties will increase the prices of imported goods and make them less attractive to buy. A good free trade deal is one where we don't produce those goods anyway and/or increases our exports more than it does imports. It usually only applies to goods originating in the partnership countries (the EU Single Market being an exception for trade between its members).
I don't know the details of our free trade deal with the EU, but I currently fail to see how it can be bettered.