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Taiwan Applies to Join CPTPP

  • 24 Sep 2021

  • Taiwan has formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) less than a week after China too had submitted an application.
  • Taiwan is excluded from many international bodies because of China's insistence that it is part of "one-China" rather than a separate country. China views Taiwan as its own territory.
  • Most recently, China sent 19 aircraft towards Taiwan on 23rd September amid rising tensions across the straits, in the latest messaging from Beijing to both Taipei and Washington on its posture on the Taiwan issue.
  • Still, Taiwan is a member of the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping.

About CPTPP

  • The original 12-member agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was seen as an important economic counterweight to China's growing influence.
  • But the TPP was thrown into limbo in early 2017 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the pact.
  • The grouping, which was renamed the CPTPP, currently links Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
  • Britain is also keen to join the trans-Pacific trade deal and recently began negotiations.