Special thanks to @AmandaBrooksDBT @JohnAlty1 and Crawford Falconer for all the support & encouragement. I’ll now be studying international relations at the Royal College of Defence Studies until next summer. 4/4

-Leading the talks which got the UK into CPTPP this year. I’ll really miss the engagement with our new Pacific partners; the midnight-to-3am zoom calls, not so much. It’s been a pleasure to work with hundreds of really talented and committed civil servants on all of these. 3/4

-Creating the Developing Country Trading Scheme, which makes it easier and cheaper for these countries to export more -Being chief negotiator for the UK-Japan FTA during the 2020 lockdown. Combining this with home schooling isn’t something I (or my kids) would like to repeat 2/4

Some personal news - I finish my current job on trade policy & negotiations today I most enjoyed: -Leading the programme to ‘roll over’ EU FTAs, the biggest ever set of trade talks, and entering them all into force on New Year’s Eve 2020 (it was a quiet night in that year) 1/4

Very nice to swing by (if that’s the right verb) Seoul on the way back home from New Zealand to talk about our #CPTPP accession experience, the coming upgrade of our bilateral free trade agreement and the state of the world with the Korean govt, academics and the private sector

Thanks a lot David!

We’ll now: -send our CPTPP docs to Parliament, starting scrutiny -work up proposals for implementing laws -encourage CPTPP members to ratify our accession quickly -help UK companies benefit from CPTPP -play an active role on widening & deepening CPTPP

As a member, we have already taken part in discussions about: the possible expansion of CPTPP, given 6 economies have already applied to join (widening); and how to ensure the agreement stays up to date, including on digital, customs and the green economy (deepening)

There’ll be clear guidance on what CPTPP means concretely, including: the lower tariffs & related rules of origin; new access to govt procurement markets; new rights related to investment and providing services; and easier/more reliable business visa rules for skilled UK workers

All this will happen when our accession enters into force, i.e. when the UK and enough CPTPP countries ratify it.  For us, ratifying means Parliament passing legislation and approving the deal.  That’s when things change in the real world for UK business

Joining CPTPP will liberalise and simplify trade with its 11 members, even with countries where we already have free trade agreements.  Search CPTPP on https://t.co/MDtxqzOWhe for full details.  It’ll improve UK trading conditions most with Malaysia and Brunei

It took all the expertise of trade experts from @biztradegovuk and across @UKCivilService plus the skill and hard work of our diplomatic posts to get this done.  Congrats to them! It was an honour to lead this effort at official level

First, securing accession has been a massive international influencing campaign and lots of very complex technical trade policy work.  Think 11 games of interdependent simultaneous 3-D chess overlaid with interesting geopolitics

📹 As the UK prepares to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and as part of our #OpenTradeProject, 🇬🇧#CPTPP chief negotiator @GrahamZebedee tells us about the importance of the group and what UK membership means. @biztradegovuk

It was great to meet with fellow #CPTPP chief negotiators here in Auckland tonight, before Ministers arrive here tomorrow for meetings over the weekend. And Brunei have today become a full CPTPP party, meaning that now all 11 members have fully ratified. #justintimedelivery

I’m massively proud of my team for having created the Developing Country Trading Scheme. It’ll benefit developing country exporters and UK consumers and improve our trade relationships with some really important countries.

Great news Brunei has just ratified #CPTPP. That’ll take effect about 12 July, so they’ll be a ratified Party before the UK’s accession is signed (working hard to make that happen asap) They follow Chile, Peru and Malaysia, making a full team of 11/11 original signatories

My mum: This trans-Pacific thing in the papers - is it to do with you? Me: yes, I’ve led that for the last 2 years. I may have mentioned it? Her: well, now it’s done will you stop going to the other side of the world & leaving your poor wife to do all the parenting? Me: yes Mum

I’m looking forward to not working across 19 time zones quite as much… But the work goes on! We now have to get it formally signed, pass legislation, put it to Parliament, and get it into force, whilst helping companies take advantage of its benefits.

@"The UK concludes CPTPP negotiations" https://t.co/YGE57osvkm on @LinkedIn It’s been my pleasure to lead the UK team at official level to get this trade deal done. Massive thanks to everyone right across ⁦@UKCivilService⁩ who worked with us on it