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 23^rd 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.