Global ministers and delegates are in Auckland as New Zealand hosts a top-level meeting on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
Central to today's gathering will be the UK's signing and accession to the bloc.
There are currently 11 countries in the CPTPP — New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch will be taking part in the UK signing ceremony.
"Having a G7 economy like the United Kingdom inside CPTPP brings the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific and boosts support for the rules-based trading system within the region," Trade Minister Damien O'Connor said ahead of the meeting.
Ukraine recently submitted a formal request to join the deal.
That application's next steps are to be determined by all current members.
China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Uruguay also have requests in, and the meeting in Auckland will also be mulling over the applications from China and Taiwan.
Both those applications have been on hold while the one from the UK was worked through.
"This is probably the first time there is going to be very serious engagement about what to do about the new applications," former trade and foreign affairs diplomat Charles Finny told Reuters.
There were widespread protests in New Zealand over the CPTPP's predecessor, the TPPA.
Auckland University emeritus professor Jane Kelsey was one of those against the deal.
She told 1News the CPTPP "is still problematic".
"When the TPPA was rebranded as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership post-United States withdrawal, there was a focus on how this would be inclusive and progressive," she said.
"MFAT has conducted a review of that which is a much more honest assessment than the usual overstatements we tend to see and includes critical Māori input. It calls the results encouraging but tentative, meaning there isn't actually anything concrete to show for it."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade review, released last month, said modelling showed the deal had increased trade between member countries in its first year but it is impossible to draw robust conclusions at this stage.
It said two-way trade with with CPTPP partners hit $60b last year.
Export New Zealand executive director Joshua Tan told 1News the agreement has been worth it.
"Essentially, what it means is that New Zealand has a level playing field when it comes to competing in those markets against overseas competition," he said.
Tan said the UK signing up to the CPTPP was "a big deal" for the region.
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