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Beijing has applied to join the Asia-Pacific trade agreement once promoted by the United States in order to isolate China and consolidate the dominant position of the United States in the region.
According to a statement issued in Beijing on Thursday evening, China submitted a formal application to New Zealand to join the Comprehensive Progress Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Since New Zealand is the depositary of the agreement, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao had a follow-up call with his Minister of Commerce Damian O’Connor.
The application will surely trigger a reaction from Washington, and some lawmakers have expressed concern about China’s efforts to join. However, there is no indication that President Joe Biden’s administration is interested in rejoining the deal.
The original agreement was conceived by the United States as an economic group to offset China’s growing power. Then President Barack Obama stated in 2016 that the United States, not China, should make regional trade rules. His successor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement in 2017, and Japan led the revised and renamed agreement to success the following year.
The application is the result of a few months of behind-the-scenes discussions after Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his interest in joining in 2020. After the United Kingdom requested membership earlier this year, China is the second country to apply to join the 11-nation agreement.
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Center for International Political Economy in Brussels, said: “This is a completely rational calculation by the Chinese leadership.” “Given how the Chinese market promotes economic recovery, their trump card will never be so strong again. In other words, rejecting Chinese applications. The cost will never be so high.”
Australia dispute
Negotiations on accession are not simple-China and CPTPP member Australia are in an economic and trade dispute, and China imposes tariffs or prevents billions of dollars in Australian exports. Despite this, China publicly lobbied Canberra last week to support joining the deal.
Canada also had a dispute with China. One Canadian citizen was sentenced to 11 years in jail, and the other is still awaiting judgment. The case is believed to be related to the arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. in Canada.
Negotiations can also take a long time. The former British Secretary of Trade stated in August that Britain is seeking to end the accession negotiations by the end of 2022.
A former US trade official said that given China’s trade system and the direction of more centralized control over the economy, it is uncertain whether China will become a member of the organization.
Trading Rules
“Even if it is not impossible, it is difficult to see how they accept the CPTPP rules governing state-owned enterprises, labor, e-commerce, free flow of data, etc., as well as comprehensive market access commitments,” Wendy said. Cutler, Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Research Institute, and former US Acting Deputy Trade Representative.
Another expert is more confident that China will succeed.
“In the long run, they will be able to resolve some differences, especially when these countries realize that China will become their largest market and the United States will not join soon,” said Henry Gao, associate professor of law at Singapore Management University, writing A large number of books on Chinese law and the World Trade Organization.
But he said this will not happen soon because “the joining process may be delayed for several years.”
The US government has not announced any specific trade policies in the region, although there are reports that it is discussing a digital trade agreement covering Asia-Pacific economies.
CPTPP ranks third among the largest free trade agreements, second only to the US$26 trillion Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the US$21.1 trillion US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. China’s accession to CPTPP will make it the most valuable free trade agreement ever signed.
The total economic value of the 11 signatories of the CPTTP is approximately US$13.5 trillion, accounting for approximately 13% of the global GDP.
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