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With Two Tigers Blocking the Road, How Could Taiwan Join the CPTPP?

icon2019/01/25
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 With Two Tigers Blocking the Road, How Could Taiwan Join the CPTPP?

 

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 21, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), headed by Japan, officially went into force at the end of last year; it subsequently launched the first stage of tariff reduction, and convened the first "Ministerial Meeting" in Tokyo on the 19th. This agreement has not only been considered the crux for examining the success or failure of the Tsai government's external economic strategy, but also an indicator of the success or failure of its "coalescing with Japan to counter China" strategy. The ministerial meeting this time formulated operational rules of the eleven member states in the future, including the bar for new members to join the organization. What our countrymen are most concerned about is what are the chances for Taiwan to join?

Toshimitsu Motegi of Japan, who chaired the ministerial meeting this time, indicated that CPTPP’s doors "will always remain open to any country that is ready to accept the CPTPP’s high standards of opening-up norms.” However, Japan also added a proviso, stressing that countries that wish to join must accept free and fair new-type 21st century economic norms; this also delineated a red line, possibly becoming a barrier for Taiwan’s accession. The reason is that our country has not opened the market to the import of agricultural products from Fukushima and four other prefectures in Japan, and last year-end, an "anti-nuclear contaminated food imports" plebiscite proposition was passed, possibly leading to the Japanese government’s determination that Taiwan violated the principle of opening up on the basis of freedom and parity in international trade, and thus blocking our accession.

In last year’s elections, the people in Taiwan passed overwhelmingly the “anti-nuclear contaminated food imports” plebiscite proposition, with 7.79 million votes. Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono indicated in a hardened tone that Taiwan’s opposition to Japan’s food imports violated the spirit of free trade in the World Trade Organization, and at the same time indicated plainly that because Taiwan adopted the anti-nuclear food imports plebiscite, it could not successfully accede to the CPTPP.

As the CPTPP celebrated its inauguration, this year is also coincidentally the year of political reconciliation between China and Japan. The Japanese government is actively laying the groundwork for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan in June to complete the last mile of normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. At the same time, Japan is also actively pushing and prompting a Free Trade Agreement between China, Japan, and Korea in order to hedge its reliance on the US market and reduce the economic impact from the US-China trade war. Its final goal is principally to cozy up to the Chinese Mainland in order to erect a grand strategy of balanced diplomacy with both the US and China. Sasaki Kenzo, a former Japanese ambassador to the United States, who has been friendly to Taiwan, clearly stated in a conference in Washington on January 1st that it is "not appropriate" for Taiwan to join the CPTPP at this stage.

The anti-nuclear food imports plebiscite proposition passed the hurdle over the objection of the Tsai government, plus the needs of thawing in Sino-Japanese relations, became the barrier for Taiwan to join the CPTPP. It will be a tough proposition as to how the Tsai government is going to change the public’s will as expressed in the anti-nuclear food imports plebiscite proposition and introduce a program that is satisfactory to Japan.

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