DTrade policies in the Asia-Pacific region are facing severe tests. A special category of free trade alliance will take effect in early 2022. “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership”, abbreviated as RCEP in English, adopted 15 countries in China, Japan and South Korea ASEAN countries Until Australia and New Zealand. In essence, Beijing hopes to use the alliance to formulate trade rules in the region. For example, Western countries such as Japan have tried to strengthen RCEP rules to ensure economic property rights, but with little success.
At the same time, China and Taiwan have also applied to join the competing CPTPP alliance. In the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership,” 11 countries including Japan, Australia, Canada and Chile have come together. CPTPP is the more western one of the two alliances.
In addition to free trade, the convention also stipulates other rules to protect the rights of workers and trade unions, environmental protection and competition policies. CPTPP is a bastion for Western values to oppose national capitalism with Chinese characteristics.This is the bastion of America’s destruction as a president Donald Trump In 2017, Obama also passed his country in negotiations. The current President Joe Biden has no interest in correcting mistakes.
China has a long-term view
China’s application to join the agreement is not merely a blatant attempt to exploit the United States for propaganda purposes. The communist regime considers the long-term. This is about making rules in the area. The obstacles for China to join the agreement are great. The difficulty does not lie in trade liberalization. Trade liberalization under CPTPP has a broader scope than trade liberalization under RCEP. The biggest obstacle is whether and how China wants to comply with the rules of equal treatment of private and state-owned enterprises, freedom of cross-border data transmission, or the abolition of forced and child labor. There are no special rules for new members compared to the exceptions for the first members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Last but not least, Trump’s poison pill in the free trade alliance between the United States and Canada and Mexico prevented China from quickly joining the trade agreement. Accordingly, the three countries were effectively prohibited from entering into trade agreements with non-market economies. Canada and Mexico will have to refuse China’s accession to the Trans-Pacific Convention.
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But regardless of the institutional obstacles, Beijing has had an impact on the institutional structure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The prospect of deepening free trade with China shifts the interests of the smaller CPTPP members, especially towards a more moderate interpretation of the rules.
Geopolitical reality
This does not bode well for the agreement’s binding force towards the West, especially since the rules have not yet been tested. Even Britain, which is expected to be the first new member to join the agreement, is not immune. Through the circuitous CPTPP, London may be able to find a path to free trade with China faster than the European Union.
The Beijing regime’s motion concealed Taiwan’s efforts to become a member of the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement. Agile island democracy will find it easier to follow the rules of the game to gain acceptance than mainland China. Japan, the current chairman of the Allied Powers and the largest economic member country, has expressed its openness to Taiwan, but its concerns about China are not groundless. However, the geopolitical reality made Taiwan join without China and fell into a situation of wishful thinking.
In the long run, other partners in Japan and the United States will find it difficult to resist Beijing’s hegemonic claims on regional trade rules. What is missing is the weight of the United States. Washington is indirectly influencing the incident through poison pills.But it will be more effective if you do Biden It will surprise yourself and lead the United States to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Pact, rather than avoiding new trade policy methods. The sparrow in his hand is heavier than the dove on the roof.
