Tokyo aims to expand the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a major regional free-trade pact, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said yesterday, potentially catering to China’s and Britain’s interest in joining the deal.
The accord links 11 nations, including Canada, Australia and Japan.
“Japan will aspire for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific through the early conclusion of the RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership] agreement and the steady implementation and expansion of the CPTPP as next year’s chair,” Suga said in a comment in a pre-recorded video message delivered at the APEC CEO Dialogues, ahead of a leaders’ virtual summit later in the day.
Photo: AFP / Malaysia’s Department of Information
The RCEP is the world’s largest free-trade deal, signed this month by 15 economies, while the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific is potentially an even larger pact the 21-member APEC has been aspiring to.
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said that Beijing was open to the idea of joining the CPTPP, while Britain earlier this year announced its intent to pursue accession to the pact.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) is scheduled to travel to Tokyo next week, marking the first high-level visit between the two countries since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said at a regular briefing yesterday.
Suga also reiterated his key policy priorities — digital transformation and reduction of greenhouse gases.
“As people’s behavioral patterns shift due to COVID-19, accelerating digital transformation is crucial,” he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last