Behind the whys and wherefores of China's CPTPP application

ALTHOUGH Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his decision to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) last November, Beijing's formal application last month seems to have flummoxed many. Some think it is meant to be a joke. Others are shocked by its perceived audacity - China wants membership of a trade grouping that was originally, and specifically, designed by the US to exclude the country.

So how did things get to this point? Yes, the Obama administration did want to set the rules of the road for trade and investment among Pacific economies without China. But the Trump administration abandoned the entire project. It then fell to Japan to persuade 10 others in the region to sign up to a revised version in 2018. The trade pact links Singapore, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam.

A clue to Beijing's gambit may be in the fact that Taiwan also formally applied to join the CPTPP a week later under the name that it uses in the World Trade Organization - the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Since 2018, Taipei has been working assiduously to ensure that its domestic laws align with the agreement's requirements.