“We will be able to have concluded negotiations by the end of next year,” Truss told the newspaper.

She argued that the deal would help Britain benefit from economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Britain received a green light in June to start the process of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership of 11 countries – Japan, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Peru, Brunei, Chile and Malaysia.

Truss told the FT she expects trade between the US and Britain could be liberalised if Washington rejoined the group. Then-president Donald Trump pulled the US out of a forerunner of the trade pact in 2017.

“The US was one of the initial parties in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the new administration has not indicated they want to join it. But who knows what might happen in the future,” she said.