Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said that no member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has expressed opposition to Taiwan applying to join the trade bloc.
“So far, we have not met any one country [that is a CPTPP member] that has openly or privately expressed their objection to Taiwan’s bid,” Wu told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
The government had been in talks with all 11 CPTPP members about Taiwan’s possible membership, Wu said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Asked on Friday if Australia supported Taiwan joining the bloc, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the CPTPP was “a relationship between nation states that are recognized.”
Speaking at the APEC summit in Bangkok, Albanese described Taiwan as an “economy,” inferred by some to mean that Taiwan did not qualify to join the CPTPP.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that this interpretation is at odds with the CPTPP’s charter, which states that “any State or separate customs territory may accede to this Agreement.”
On Saturday, Albanese offered a slightly modified response, stating that applications would be “dealt with on consensus for economies applying to join the CPTPP” and judged based on their individual merits.
At yesterday’s legislative meeting, Wu said the Australian government had made it clear to Taipei that it welcomed “all economic entities” that meet the CPTPP’s high standards to join the bloc.
Wu said that following Albanese comments on Friday, the ministry had reached out to an “authoritative Australian government branch,” which made the clarification.
The ministry did not reveal the source of the clarification, and the Australian government has not issued a statement to that effect.
The CPTPP — which grew out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership abandoned by the US in January 2017 — is one of the world’s biggest trade blocs, representing a market of 500 million people and accounting for 13.5 percent of global trade.
For a new member to join the CPTPP, all 11 signatories — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — must approve the application.
Taiwan applied on Sept. 22 last year to join the CPTPP, less than one week after China submitted its application.
Asked when Taiwan might join the trade bloc, Wu told lawmakers that the CPTPP is focusing on reviewing the UK’s bid and is unlikely to deal with Taiwan’s application any time soon.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the
RSS