China has applied to join the Asia-Pacific trade pact on Thursday, 16th September, to strengthen its position in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in the marketing field. Under Barrack Obama’s administration in 2016, the US had made the pact Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with ten countries, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was done to counter China’s influence in the Asia Pacific region. But after US President Trump pulled the US out of the pact in 2017, present President Joe Biden has not shown any interest in joining. After the US left, Japan has led negotiations to create a pact called the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership)
How China negotiated to be in CTTP
Information from resources said that this move from China has come after a historic security deal between the US, UK and Australia. Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao has unveiled its interest to join CPTPP by writing a letter to the administrative office for the pact in New Zealand along with a telephonic discussion with New Zealand’s trade minister, Damien O’Connor, about the next steps. The usage of the CPTPP began in the year 2018, and the rule took into consideration the agreements that could give market access, labor movement, and government procurement.
In June UK and Thailand have shown interest in joining CPTPP by starting negotiations. However, China is showing interest in CPTPP. In November last year, it has already signed a different free trade agreement with RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), the world’s largest trading bloc and 14 countries like South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
According to the AUKUS pact, in which the US, UK and Australia share a trilateral security partnership to enable Canberra (Australia) to deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific, that got signed on Wednesday. Analysts said this move would allow Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using Artificial Intelligence and other technologies provided by the US and the UK.
Apprehensiveness about China’s inclusion
In 2001, though China had joined the World Trade organization to open finance and other service industries, it failed to increase imports and to keep other promises. So, Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters on Friday that it would have to determine if China meets the “extremely high standards” of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). He also said they would come to some conclusion only after discussing with member countries’ representatives.
The interest in joining CPTPP is not related to the AUKUS pact, and China is pushing for regional integration, says Zhao Lijian, China’s foreign ministry spokesman. He also said, AUKUS is an extremely irresponsible and narrow-minded pact and is intensifying the arms race.
On the other hand, Taiwan, which is also interested in joining CPTPP, is concerned about China’s decision to apply, as China and Taiwan are under territorial issue. China’s subsidies of state-owned firms and arbitrary application of the law were likely to make it hard for the country to join the trade pact, tweeted Japan’s deputy finance minister, Kenji Nakanishi, on Friday. He also tweeted there are very few chances that China may join CPTPP as the free, fair and highly transparent world of TPP is not possible by China. This move by China is just to keep Taiwan from joining CPTPP, he says.
