Britain Hopes to Join Pacific Trade Deal
英国希望加入跨太平洋伙伴关系协定
British officials say they hope their country will one day join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
英国官员表示他们希望英国有一天可以加入跨太平洋伙伴关系协议（TPP）。
The TPP is currently being negotiated by 11 other countries. All 11 have a border facing either the Pacific Ocean or the South China Sea.
目前参与TPP谈判的有11个国家。这些国家的边界都靠近太平洋或中国南海。
The British government hopes trade with fast-growing economies will make up for any losses that may take place after it leaves the European Union (EU).
英国政府希望和发展迅速的经济体进行贸易。可以弥补脱离欧盟可能出现的损失
Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, known as Brexit, is expected in 2019.
英国退出欧盟，即脱欧，预计于2019年完成。
On a recent trip to China, Britain’s Trade Minister, Liam Fox, suggested his country might one day join the TPP.
英国贸易部长利亚姆.福克斯暗示英国有朝一日可能加入TPP。
We don’t know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like yet, because it isn’t yet negotiated, Fox said.
“我们不知道TPP未来会怎样，因为这一协定还未协商完毕。”
So, it would be a little bit premature for us to be wanting to sign up to something that we’re not sure what the final details will look like. However, we have said that we want to be an open, outward-looking country, and therefore it would be foolish for us to rule out any particular outcomes for the future, he added.
“所以对我们来说要去签署一些未知最终细节的东西，还不太成熟。然而我们说过，英国想要成为一个开放的外向型国家，因此要是将未来的可能排除在外，那就太愚蠢了。”
London sits some 7,000 kilometers from any Pacific coastline. So, is geography no longer an issue in 21st century trade?
伦敦距太平洋海岸线7000多公里。所以，对21世纪的贸易来说，地理是否不再是一个问题了？
Not so, says economist Jonathan Portes. He works as a professor at Kings College London.
经济学家乔纳森.波蒂斯说并非如此。他是伦敦大学国王学院的一名教授。
Portes says, "There has been an argument put forward that, particularly as trade in services expands, and as a result of technology, it will matter considerably less in the future, and that seems to make a lot of sense. So far at least, the actual data and evidence don’t really support this contention. For whatever reason, geography at the moment seems to matter as much as it ever did," he added.
波蒂斯说：“有这样一种论断，尤其在服务贸易扩大的情况下，由于科技的原因，未来地理的影响相对较小，这很有道理。至少目前为止，现有的数据和证据并不能真正支撑这样的论点。不管出于什么原因，当下地理位置和以往一样重要。”
By withdrawing from the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union, Britain will leave a free trade agreement that makes up about half of its foreign trade. By comparison, the 11 countries now negotiating the TPP combined accepted less than eight percent of all British exports last year.
英国退出欧盟的单一市场和关税同盟后，将失去占其外贸一半的自由贸易协定。相比之下，如今商讨TPP的11个国家加起来去年对英国总出口的贡献还不到百分之八。
Portes said it will take many years for Britain to profit from other trade deals. He added that British companies have close ties with the European Union. He thinks there will likely be problems because of Brexit.
波蒂斯说，英国还要花费很多年才能从其他贸易协定中获益。他补充道英国的公司和欧盟关系密切。他认为脱欧可能会对此造成一些问题。
The countries negotiating the TPP include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan and Mexico. The others are New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
