CPTPP Opens Preparatory Accession Talks with the Philippines, Indonesia and the UAE
At the 10th Comprehensive and Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission meeting, held virtually on June 26, the bloc’s 12 members agreed to open preparatory accession discussions with the Philippines, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The decision follows the November 2025 Joint Ministerial Statement in Melbourne, which identified the three economies as being in line with the Auckland Principles governing expansion. The preparatory discussions are the first of their kind for the bloc, covering compliance with the agreement's standards ahead of formal accession negotiations, which the November statement indicated could begin as early as 2026.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said Jakarta has aligned domestic regulations with CPTPP provisions across 22 chapters and is targeting full membership by 2027, with public backing from the United Kingdom reflected in the two countries' Economic Growth Partnership signed in January. The Philippines, for its part, formally applied in November 2025. Altogether, the 12 CPTPP economies account for roughly 15% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a combined population of nearly 600 million. For Manila and Jakarta, this accession would consolidate a broader push to expand preferential market access.
The Philippines is working to conclude its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) before its Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) expire in 2027, and the European Commission sent the concluded Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to the Council for signature on June 29. Even so, the road to membership remains long: the United Kingdom's accession, the only one completed to date, took nearly four years from application to entry into force. Meanwhile, Costa Rica's accession was concluded in May 2026, after first submitting its application in August 2022.
