Exclusive | China’s trade-pact bid ‘impossible’ for Australia to approve while Beijing’s sanctions remain, sources say
- Canberra not expected to endorse China’s membership into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership amid ‘geopolitical baggage’
- And it does not look like Australia will support Taiwan’s membership either
China failed to secure a public endorsement from Australia to join a Pacific Rim-focused trading bloc during a recent high-profile visit to Beijing by Australia’s trade minister, multiple sources tell the Post.
China’s joining of the advanced trade and investment treaty is a key agenda item on the negotiation table between Beijing and Canberra amid their thawing ties, but a source said that “it would be impossible for the Australian government to publicly support the Chinese membership when trade sanctions were in place”.
“Australia did not oppose the Chinese membership of the CPTPP, but it would need to be on the basis of China reaching the trade standards of the CPTPP,” one of the four people added.
“Farrell told [Beijing] Australia did not support the Taiwanese membership – referring to the Albanese statement in November 2022,” the source said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last year that Canberra was very unlikely to support Taiwan’s push to join CPTPP.