Taiwan announces its application to join Pacific trade pact CPTPP days after Beijing’s request
- The announcement comes days after Beijing made a similar request to be a member of the pact
- Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua and the island’s top trade negotiator John Deng are expected give details of the application on Thursday
Chen Chern-chyi, the island’s deputy economic minister, said on Wednesday that Taipei had submitted the application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Chen told reporters that Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua and the island’s top trade negotiator John Deng would give details of the application in a news conference in Taipei on Thursday. He gave no further information, including where and when exactly the island had sent the application.
Bloomberg reported earlier quoting an unnamed source that the Taiwanese application was sent to New Zealand, which is the depositary nation for the agreement. It said the application would be forwarded by New Zealand to the other member nations for review.
The regrouping of the pact now links Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Britain is also keen to join the trade deal and began negotiations in June. But the US, is yet to make a clear indication if it will join the group.
In a surprise move, Beijing sent in its application last Thursday to join the trade pact originally initiated by the US to counter China’s economic influence.
The island’s economic minister said Beijing’s sudden decision did not affect Taiwan’s plan to join the trade pact as it had been quietly pursuing backchannel negotiations with friendly countries to lobby for its inclusion in the CPTPP and other bodies.
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“Our strategy is to line up allies in a low-key manner and work on building consensus before pursuing any official application,” Wang told reporters last Friday when asked about China’s application.
“That way, things tend to happen smoothly as a matter of course,” she noted.
Japan, the CPTPP’s chair this year, said it would consult member countries to respond to China’s request, but stopped short of signalling a timeline for doing so, according to news reports.
“Japan believes that it’s necessary to determine whether China, which submitted a request to join the TPP-11, is ready to meet its extremely high standards,” Japanese Economic Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura was quoted by Reuters as saying last Friday.
Taiwan, which has free trade deals with New Zealand and Singapore – members of CPTPP – has been excluded from many international bodies due to Beijing’s objection.
