(ANSA) - BEIJING, SEPTEMBER 23 - Taiwan's request to join the Global and Progressive Agreement for the Transpacific Partnership (CPTPP), the free trade pact evolution of the former TPP, is "at risk" if China, which has made a 'similar move on September 16, were to join first.
The chief commercial negotiator of Taipei, John Deng, confirming the filing of the request made yesterday to New Zealand, the depositary of the agreement, recalled that Beijing "has always tried to hinder the participation" of the island at the international level. Deng, ruling out direct links to Chinese demand last week, added, according to local media, that Taiwan, a major semiconductor manufacturer, has asked to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the name it uses: the separate customs territory of China. Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Taipei is part of the WTO and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Group (APEC). Deng said he was unable to predict how long the membership process might last.
Taiwan is excluded from many international organizations because China considers the island a province to be reunified, if necessary even by force.
The CPTPP connects Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam and, in the original plan, included the USA, promoters of the initiative under the name of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) during the American administration of Barack Obama.
The pact, considered an important economic counterweight to China's growing influence, was abandoned by Donald Trump in 2017, upon his entry into the White House.
(HANDLE).