NZ and Australia Refuse to Comment on Taiwan Application to Trade Deal

Penny Wong (L), Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs meets with Nanaia Mahuta, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister for bilateral talks in Wellington, New Zealand, on June 16, 2022. (Robert Kitchin - Pool/Getty Images)

The foreign ministers of New Zealand and Australia have refused to respond to questions over Taiwan’s application to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Speaking at a joint press conference in Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta both refused to answer questions about Taiwan’s upcoming application, instead saying that they welcome applications to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“We have a number of applications to the CPTPP—we’ve got the UK, China, Taiwan, Ecuador, and potentially another fifth country coming online. As a repository of those applications, New Zealand has consistently said we welcome applications into the CPTPP, and it must be a high-quality, high-standards agreement,” Mahuta said.

However, Wong noted that any application obviously would be assessed on the basis of the applicant’s capacity to “comply with and observe the fullness of the quality of the agreement.”

“Our focus at the moment is obviously the UK. And I'd just make the point that any such application would require the consensus of the parties,” Wong said.

The partnership currently encompasses 11 countries, including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam, which represent 13.4 percent of the world’s GDP. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also notes that the trade partnership also eliminates 98 percent of trade tariffs for member states.

Refusal to Comment Comes After Australian Parliament Gives Support to Taiwan

The refusal to provide commentary on China’s application comes after the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade said Australia supported the expansion of the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to include Taiwan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Ted O’Brien, chair of the trade sub-committee, in a media release on Feb. 10, that Australia would only support economies that seek an open, transparent and stable trading environment.

“Only aspiring economies that support an open, transparent and stable trading environment, and those that demonstrate an ability and willingness to meet the agreement’s high standards should be considered,” O’Brien said in a statement announcing that the committee had concluded its inquiry and was tabling its formal report to Parliament for the government to legislate on.

“The CPTPP is one of the world’s most comprehensive trade agreements, and its quality must be maintained.”

O'Brien also said the committee had recommended that Australia should not only facilitate Taiwan’s addition to the trade pact but also negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement with the self-governing democratic island of 25 million people.

Federal Liberal Member for Fairfax Ted O'Brien speaks onstage during the Australian 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Celebration at the University of Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia, on Oct. 7, 2021. (Peter Wallis/Getty Images for the AOC)

“A lesson from our experience with the UK is that benefits accrue from negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement and the CPTPP at the same time,” he said.

Committee Recommended Pushing China to End its Trade Sanctions Regime

The supportive comments from the parliamentary committee towards Taiwan’s application come as the Committee also issued recommendations for China’s application to join the CPTPP.

The committee recommended that before the Australian federal government began any process of looking into China’s application to the CPTPP, it should work with fellow trade pact nations to push the communist regime to end its trade sanctions, re-engage in dialogue with Australian ministers, and adhere to the pact’s high standards.

“The ball is in their court,” O’Brien said. “It’s up to China if it wishes to re-engage with Australia, and I hope it does because that would enable the discussions that are necessary to determine whether an accession process should commence.”

Meanwhile, the Japanese government, which is currently chairing the Partnership for this year, has said that it is concerned Beijing would not be able to meet the trade pact’s high standards.

Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters in September that the Partnership would need to determine the Chinese regime’s sincerity in sticking to the trade pacts rules.

“Japan believes that it’s necessary to determine whether China, which submitted a request to join the TPP-11, is ready to meet its extremely high standards,” Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura reported Reuters.

Daniel Y. Teng contributed to this report.