Taiwan would push to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) during the APEC meeting in Lima, the nation’s top trade negotiator, Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), said on Sunday.
Yang, who is part of the Taiwanese delegation and heads the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, said on the sidelines of the Peru meeting that the event is a great opportunity for Taiwan to pitch to join the CPTPP and demonstrate its high standards of trade.
Taiwan is fully prepared to work with the CPTPP members in pursuing a green economy, inclusive growth and digital economic transformation, she said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The nation will ramp up exchanges in industrial development, technologies and talent with CPTPP members as it paves the way to join the trade bloc, she said.
The CPTPP, which evolved from the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the US left in January 2017, is one of the world’s biggest trade blocs. It represents a market of 500 million people and accounts for 13.5 percent of global trade.
Its 11 signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The UK formally signed the trade agreement on July 16 last year. The British government expects its agreement to join the CPTPP to enter into force by Dec. 15.
Taiwan officially applied to join the CPTPP on Sept. 22, 2021, less than a week after China. Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Ukraine have also applied to join the trade bloc.
According to the CPTPP’s Auckland Principles, the group is open to accession by any economy that is willing and able to meet the CPTPP’s high standards, has a demonstrated history of compliance with their existing trade commitments and can achieve the consensus of CPTPP parties.
Yang said Taiwan would likely face uncertainty in its trade relationship with the US, given US president-elect Donald Trump, whose rhetoric implies he opposes global trade, won the US elections on Tuesday last week.
Taiwan and the US have been in close communication over the first agreement in the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, Yang’s office said earlier this month.
The deal was signed by both sides in June last year.
In Taipei, Lin Hsin-i (林信義), Taiwan’s envoy to APEC, is scheduled to depart for Lima tomorrow to attend the leaders’ summit on Thursday.
Lin, who is to represent President William Lai (賴清德) at the summit, said at a news conference on Thursday last week that he would express Taiwan’s willingness to contribute to peace in the Asia-Pacific region and demonstrate the country is a reliable and responsible member of the international community.
Lin previously attended three APEC meetings: Brunei in 2000, China in 2001 and South Korea in 2005, during the Democratic Progressive Party administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Lin, chairman of Taiwania Capital Management Corp and a senior presidential adviser, served as economic affairs minister from 2000 to 2002 and vice premier from 2002 to 2004.
Taiwan joined APEC in 1991 under the name “Chinese Taipei.” However, China has blocked the nation’s presidents from attending the leaders’ summit.
This year’s meeting in Lima is following the theme “Empower, Include, Grow.”
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