Liam Fox, for the United Kingdom, Jitoko Tikolevu, for Fiji, and Winnie Kiap, for Papua New Guinea, signed in London, on 14 March 2019, the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part. Miscellaneous Series No. 15 (2019), CP 76. Article 79: the Agreement is drawn up in English. Wikipedia adds French; that is not in the authenticity article. It continues, technically, the EC–Pacific interim EPA signed in London on 30 July 2009, after Brexit.

Article 1: improved UK market access pending a comprehensive EPA; sustainable development; an asymmetric free-trade area consistent with WTO rules; dispute settlement and institutions. Article 2 and Annex IV: essential elements — human rights, democracy, the rule of law, good governance — in the Cotonou line. Article 3: sustainable development is an integral part. Article 4: it does not prevent other free-trade areas. This is not a tariff-evasion handbook.

Article 11 and Annex I: products originating in the Pacific States enter the United Kingdom free of customs duties, except Chapter 93 (MFN) and a sugar-market disturbance clause. Article 12 and Annex II: Pacific reductions on UK-originating goods. Article 10: no export duties, with fiscal, environmental or, by mutual agreement, infant-industry exceptions. Article 14: a standstill. Article 8: origin under Protocol II, to be reviewed within five years. This is not a quota gazetteer.

Articles 19–20: WTO anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures, with assistance for Pacific exporters. Article 69: a commitment to a comprehensive EPA, which will replace this interim text. Article 75: entry into force on the first day of the month after domestic notifications, or on an agreed date; provisional application ten days after notifications. Termination on twelve months’ notice. Application was designed to take effect when the EU EPA ceased to apply to the United Kingdom.

Article 76: British territory as under the EU EPA immediately before exit, not the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. Article 78: remains open to accession by listed Pacific Island States on a GATT Article XXIV-compliant offer. Samoa and Solomon Islands acceded later, with effect from 31 March 2022 according to GOV.UK; they are not original signatories.

Cover: the Foreign Office on King Charles Street, Whitehall, in the capital of signature, not the plenipotentiaries’ table. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Pacific States–United Kingdom Economic Partnership Agreement; Interim Economic Partnership Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Pacific States.