Taiwan will continue to solicit support from member countries to join a regional trade bloc even though the group last week decided not to initiate Taiwan’s accession process, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in charge of the membership bid said yesterday.
It is regrettable that members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) did not reach agreement on the issue at a summit in Vancouver, Canada, Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs Director-General Lien Yu-ping (連玉蘋) said.
CPTPP members were unable to decide at the summit on allowing a working group to be formed that would have advanced Taiwan’s application.
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuan, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s international participation has always faced pressure and therefore the bid needed greater effort due to the “geopolitical reality,” Lien said, hinting that the China factor stood in the way.
However, Taiwan will not give up and will continue its efforts that began when it applied to join the trade bloc on Sept. 22, 2021, to convince the CPTPP members that it has met the high standards required to be part of the bloc, she said.
The CPTPP on Thursday launched an accession process for Costa Rica, which applied to join the bloc in August 2022 — a year after Taiwan.
China’s application to join, submitted about a week before Taiwan’s in 2021, was also put on hold at the meeting.
Asked why the bids of Taiwan and China were held up, while Costa Rica’s moved forward, Canadian Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Mary Ng (伍鳳儀) said that the agreement remained “completely open to new members,” but a consensus among members is needed to advance an application.
She did not say if member countries’ “one China” policies had prevented Taiwan’s application from moving forward, only saying that Canada’s “one China” policy remained unchanged and reiterating the need for consensus among members to consider membership bids.
Politico last week reported before the annual summit that Taiwan met the trade standards required to join, but that CPTPP members could not reach a consensus on Taiwan’s application, citing unnamed officials from member nations.
The report said Taiwan’s bid had been held up, “because of the politics with China.”
Beijing has opposed Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP. Taiwanese officials are worried that a successful bid by China could sink Taiwan’s hopes of joining the bloc.
The CPTPP’s decision to focus on Costa Rica first rather than Taiwan or China still had a silver lining — Beijing’s bid was not considered before Taiwan’s although it had applied for membership earlier, Lien said.
She was referring to the requirements set by the CPTPP for new members, which include meeting the trade pact’s high standards, demonstrating a strong track record of meeting trade obligations and garnering a consensus among all members.
Taiwan believes China is not qualified to join the CPTPP based on those principles, given its history of using economic coercion against countries with which it disagrees with, Lien said.
It could take another year before next year’s CPTPP summit to consider Taiwan’s application, she said.
The CPTPP is one of the biggest trade blocs in the world, representing about 15 percent of the global economy.
It has 11 members — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — with the UK set to become the 12th member later this month.
Canada is this year’s chair of the CPTPP Commission and Australia is to take over the role next year.
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