Taiwan has in the past year shown its determination and ability to meet the standards needed to become a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and would keep pushing for its accession to the trade bloc, the Office of Trade Negotiations said on Thursday.
Taiwan has completed amendments to several laws to meet the requirements to be a CPTPP member, and in February last year eased restrictions on imports of Japanese food that were imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the office said in a statement.
These efforts were made to demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to join the Japan-led trade bloc and to boost the confidence of the 11 CPTPP member states in Taiwan’s ability to meet international trade standards, it said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan would continue to interact with CPTPP member states this year, and ask the trade bloc to establish a working group to review its application to join the trade pact, after the UK is approved as a member state.
In an interview with NHK in Tokyo on Tuesday, British Minister of State for the Indo-Pacific Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she hoped the UK would become a CPTPP member “in the relatively near future.”
The CPTPP Commission agreed to formally commence accession negotiations with the UK in June 2021, after the country submitted a formal request to join the trade bloc in February that year.
Taiwan applied to join the trade pact in September 2021, less than a week after China announced its bid to become a CPTPP member.
Meanwhile, Taiwan and the US wrapped up their latest round of talks in Taipei on Tuesday under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which was launched in June last year.
The office said it aims to complete talks with the US in the areas of trade facilitation, anti-corruption, small and medium-sized enterprises, good regulatory practices and the domestic regulation of services. It hopes to announce the results of those talks before the APEC summit is held in the US later this year.
The office said it would also continue working on deepening relationships with the 18 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australasia targeted by the government’s New Southbound Policy, thereby spreading the risks faced by Taiwanese businesses in the global market.
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