The business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has signed off UK membership to a large Indo-Pacific trade bloc that the government argues will bring British businesses a step closer to selling to a market of 500 million people with fewer barriers. The deal represents Britain’s biggest trade agreement since leaving the EU, cutting tariffs for UK exporters to a group of countries that will have a combined GDP of £12tn, about 15% of global GDP, according to officials. Badenoch acknowledged that the probability of the UK securing a free trade agreement with the US was “very low”, despite it being a priority for many pro-Brexit Conservatives