Can China join the big free-trade deal that Donald Trump failed to kill?
- Think tank urges Beijing to apply to join CPTPP, the improved version of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership
- Sees ‘time window’ for China to join as the US president pushes his ‘America first’ agenda
The Chinese government should consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an 11-nation free-trade alliance, to show Beijing remains committed to open trade as its tariff battle with Washington drags on, a Chinese think tank said on Wednesday.
The US’ absence from the new trade block, which officially launched at the end of 2018, gives China a “time window” for expanding its “circle of friends” and avoiding being excluded from any new trade system, the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation said in a research report unveiled at a media briefing.
Nations taking part in the CPTPP include Japan, Australia, Vietnam and Mexico.
“We should make preparations in advance and join as many regional trade blocks as possible,” centre founder Wang Huiyao, who also serves as an adviser to China’s State Council, told reporters.
Joining CPTPP – which would require China to meet the partnership’s standards on labour, state-owned enterprises, service trade and intellectual property – would be a “good” way “to build consensus [within China] and reduce friction with the US”, Wang said.
CPTPP is an improved version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was dealt a staggering blow when US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from it on January 23, 2017 in one of his first acts after his inauguration.