China’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has been met with skepticism.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤) had submitted a formal membership application to the CPTPP’s depository state, New Zealand, and had a telephone call with New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor to discuss follow-up work, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced late on Thursday.
Beijing’s move is not surprising, given that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told an APEC summit in November last year that China would “favorably consider joining” the trade pact. However, the tricky part of the move is its timing after tensions between the US and China increased once more.
On Sept. 9, US President Joe Biden called Xi — their second phone conversation since Biden took office. The fruitless call was followed two days later by a Financial Times report titled “Washington risks Beijing ire over proposal to rename Taiwan’s US office.” On Wednesday, the US, the UK and Australia jointly announced the creation of an enhanced security partnership called AUKUS, which would allow Canberra to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
China’s CPTPP bid has been interpreted by commentators as a “symbolic” step to counter the creation of the security partnership, with many questioning the communist regime’s willingness to reform its economy to meet the trade pact’s standards. Beijing denies a link between the events.
“China’s bid to join the CPTPP faces trade friction with Australia and territorial disputes with Vietnam,” a Nikkei Asia article said on Thursday.
“China is exceedingly unlikely to actually be able to join the CPTPP. The agreement by design includes high standards that go far beyond tariff removal, including regulations guiding market access, labor rights, and government procurement,” an article in The Diplomat said on Friday.
There is also concern that even if China joined the pact, it might try to bend its rules to serve its own interests, another Nikkei Asia article said yesterday.
Despite their reservations about China’s move, many Japanese media have urged caution, especially as the US has not shown any interest in rejoining the CPTPP after it in 2017 pulled out of the agreement under then-US president Donald Trump.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday told a news briefing that “the president has been clear that he would not rejoin the [CP]TPP as it was initially put forward,” adding that the Biden administration is looking at options to forge stronger economic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.
Her remarks hint that the White House has not yet formed a trade strategy with Indo-Pacific partners, despite its calls for supply chain restructuring.
In Taipei, the government cannot merely wait for other countries’ help.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) on Friday said that the government is monitoring CPTPP member states’ responses and continues to conduct informal consultations with member states before it submits a formal application.
Wang Mei-hua’s words resemble a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement in December last year that rebutted a disinformation campaign that alleged that the government had not submitted an application.
Instead of playing the same old tune, the government should inform voters of its plans to remove the hurdles for an application.
It is also time to resume a debate on whether Taiwan should lift a ban on some food imports from Japan. However warm Taiwan-Japan relations might be, import bans might become an unavoidable battlefield amid the government’s hopes to make foreign trade breakthroughs.
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