BEIJING: China’s signaling of its interest in joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership indicates the strong resolve of its top leadership to deepen reform and pursue opening-up at a higher level, analysts said.
They also said the completion in principle on Wednesday of negotiations on a comprehensive agreement on investment between China and the European Union could mark a step closer toward China joining the CPTPP.
The country has expressed its open attitude to joining the free trade agreement, signed among 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2018, after having signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with 14 participating nations in mid-November.
China’s annual tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December stressed the need to actively consider CPTPP membership as part of efforts to move forward with reform and opening-up across the board. President Xi Jinping also made a similar pledge at the 27th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum’s Economic Leaders’ Meeting, held via video link, on Nov 20. China’s interest in joining the trade deal was announced as early as May, when Premier Li Keqiang held a news conference at the closing of the annual National People’s Congress session.
Cui Fan, an international trade professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said the conclusion of the China-EU investment deal negotiations could bring China a step closer to joining the CPTPP, as the deal with the EU covers provisions also emphasized by the CPTPP, including labor rights issues and State-owned enterprises’ behavior.
“It showed that China has adopted a flexible stance on negotiations in those areas that adheres to market principles and a people-centered philosophy,” he said.
He said CPTPP membership would match China’s development interests, given China’s rapid economic growth and its close economic and trade ties with Asia-Pacific economies, even though some provisions in the trade pact would pose some challenges during the accession process.
China’s display of interest in the trade deal epitomizes its readiness to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and economic globalization, he added.
“It will also help China maintain dialogue and consultation with its partners, build up consensus and work toward the establishment of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific,” he said. Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a nongovernmental think tank based in Beijing, said the reaching of the China-EU investment deal will provide a strong impetus for China’s accession to the CPTPP.
Joining the CPTPP would mean that China must adopt practices in keeping with international standards in government procurement, subsidies, the behavior of SOEs and labor, he said.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
