Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-applies-join-pacific-trade-pact-cptpp-official-news-agency-2021-09-22/
Taiwan sent in their application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (SPTPP) on Wednesday in hopes to benefit Taiwan’s economy and trade policy. Just a week after China submitted their application, Taiwan hopes that China will not overshadow them as the Chinese and some other countries still see Taiwan as a territory of China. The partnership, originally called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was first created to combat China’s increasing power however in 2017 when the United States withdrew from the pact it was renamed to what it is today. The partnership today consists of Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
The sudden interest of Taiwan and China in joining this pact will cause other countries to express their interest in also becoming a part of the trans-Pacific trading like the UK. The UK will have their first meeting to be included in the CPTPP in less than a month, attempting to move away from Europe post- Brexit and create relationships with faster growing economies. This also plays alongside Taiwan’s increasing acknowledgement in the international community as part of the World Trade Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and closer trade relations with the United States and the European Union.
Taiwan is a non recognized state, meaning that it functions as a sovereign state, however, is not recognized by other countries as their own state due to the rest of the world being dependent on China’s economy to sustain their own. Making many countries hesitant to give recognition to Taiwan as China still claims Taiwan as their own. The CPTPP is a free trade agreement (FTA) between 11 countries currently that gives huge opportunities of expansion and trade to the countries involved.