Scottish businesses now have full access to a 12-country Asia-Pacific trading bloc after Canada became the final country to ratify UK membership.

Alongside the UK, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Conspicuously absent from the bloc is China, which applied to join in 2021 but whose accession is widely considered unlikely in the near future, with stumbling blocks around state-owned enterprises and cross-border data flows as well as geopolitics.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) entered into accession talks earlier this year.

The UK signed the CPTPP in 2023, and it entered into force in 2024 with the first countries that had ratified.

The UK government expects the agreement to deliver around £2 billion a year to the UK economy in the long run.

Chancellor John Healey said: “Full access to this trading bloc opens the door to new customers, contracts and investment for British businesses.

“We are backing UK firms to take full advantage of these opportunities, so they can boost their exports and help drive growth and well-paid jobs everywhere.”