Taiwan will submit its application to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progressive Agreement (CPTPP) once it completes informal consultations with its 11 existing members, the foreign ministry said. Taiwan has been seeking to join the multilateral trade pact, and negotiations with its 11 members are still under way. Taiwan’s foreign ministry did not give a timetable for submitting the application.
Taiwan’s online community recently spread the news that Taiwan has never formally applied to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progress Agreement (CPTPP), and that the Government of the Republic of China (R.O.C.) refers to the “suppression by the Communist Party of China”.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progress Agreement (CPTPP), formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, was signed in 2018. On January 23, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the TPP. On November 11, the SAME year, TPP was restructured into the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progressive Agreement, and at the same time, 22 articles advocated by the United States but opposed by many other countries were frozen.
Taiwan formally joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 2002, under president Chen Shui-bian.
But while Taiwan is a member of the World Trade Organization, many countries are wary of signing trade deals with Taiwan for fear of opposition from the Chinese Communist Party.
The Communist Party considers Taiwan to be part of China. When Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, she infuriated the Chinese communist Party by not acknowledging what Beijing calls the “1992 Consensus” and the “One China principle.” Hawkish members of the Communist Party suggest that China start preparing for “military unification”.
Taiwan has consistently denied being part of China, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Ou Jiang-an made it clear in January that Taiwan is Taiwan, not Part of China, “certainly not part of the People’s Republic of China.”
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement late Sunday that under CPTPP procedures, new member applications need to first complete informal negotiations with existing members and “reach a consensus” before applying.
The foreign Ministry said in a statement that the talks were ongoing and that member states “have clearly understood our determination and steps to seek accession and are quite positive in their attitude.”
The 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progress Agreement are Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Taiwan’s efforts to join the CPTPP have the support of member countries. According to Taiwanese media reports, earlier this year, Takumi Ikeda, former ambassador of the Taipei office of Japan’s Taiwan Exchange Association, said That Japan should support Taiwan’s participation in CPTPP in the future. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has recently said he wants Taiwan to join the CPTPP. A survey in November by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a Canadian research institute, also showed that Canadians generally hold a positive attitude toward Taiwan’s deepening ties with Japan, South Korea, India and asean, with 68 percent of Canadians supporting Taiwan’s participation in THE CPTPP.
Observers note that each member of the CPTPP has diplomatic ties with China, making Taiwan’s bid to join the multilateral body highly sensitive. CPTPP participants will have to choose between political and pragmatic economic solutions.
Communist Party president Xi Jinping said last month that China would “actively consider” signing the CPTPP. Xi’s remarks come less than a week after China and 14 other Asia-Pacific economies signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Hanoi, Vietnam, forming the world’s largest free trade bloc. Taiwan is not a member of the group.
According to the analysis, if Taiwan can join the CPTPP led by Japan, it will relieve the pressure on Taiwan to be unable to join the RCEP and have a better chance to cancel more than 95% tariffs on products.
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