APEC: China & the CPTPP

New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor has said he will not prejudge China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade pact signed by 11 countries across the region in 2011.  

Speaking to media at an on-line news conference earlier this week, Mr O’Connor suggested it was the responsibility of all new applicants to the pact, including China, to “reach the standards that we have set”.

Foreign and trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum met virtually on Tuesday night, with access to Covid vaccines remaining a concern across the region. 

Nanaia Mahuta and Damien O'Connor appear at a media conference following the APEC Ministerial meeting

Both China and Taiwan have applied to join CPTPP, but their entry would require unanimous support from every member of APEC.

China opposes Taiwan’s bid to join, as Beijing regards it as a “renegade province”.

Mr O’Connor says countries have always been welcome to apply for membership of the CPTPP, but the criteria around that membership meant applicants had to abide by certain standards.

Asked if China’s labour camps in Xinjiang could scupper China’s bid to enter the pact, Mr O’Connor replied “we’re not going to prejudge what China might have to change or do”.

“What the members of CPTPP have committed to is to maintaining the high standards that were hard fought, and hard won,” he said.

“And I don’t think anyone has a view that there should be any movement from those standards. So it’s up to the applicant economies to reach the standards that we have set.”

Asked about Canberra’s complaints of China’s apparent economic coercion against Australia, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said “there wasn’t a lot of discussion around that issue”.

Trade Minister Damien O’Connor said APEC members reiterated their “strong stance against vaccine nationalism” during Tuesday night’s meeting.

“It was heartening to hear that no APEC economy has introduced vaccine export restrictions, since we discussed a shared response to vaccine nationalism back in June,” he said.

“Seventeen APEC economies have either lowered or completely removed tariffs on vaccines and related products.”

“APEC Ministers have recognised the need for a COVID recovery that ensures no one is left behind. This particularly includes women and indigenous peoples who are most negatively impacted by the global pandemic,” Nanaia Mahuta said.

APEC members also agreed to make it easier for environment-friendly services to move between their countries, and to look at increasing the number of green goods which can be subject to lower tariffs.

The APEC Ministerial Meeting is one of the major events in the APEC timetable being held this week hosted by New Zealand. 

• Asia Media Centre