China promotes rival trade deal as US exits TPP
BEIJING: Just one day after President Donald Trump announced the US is withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), China on Tuesday used the opportunity to promote a rival regional trade deal.
“We are ready to work with all parties concerned to continue to promote...economic integration in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, (RCEP)” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
RCEP is a proposed pact that excludes the United States and is aimed at cutting trade tariffs between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Analysts say America’s exit from TPP gives room for China to emerge as a leader in Asia-Pacific economic trade development.
“Trump’s exit from the TPP is a big relief for China. The TPP was indeed a strategy that directly competed with China’s [plans]. Now China has more space to further develop its economy,” Ni Dongxiong, professor at the Institute of National Defence Strategy in Shanghai, said.
Other Asia-Pacific countries hoping to create a regional trading zone as part of the largest-ever trade deal also said on Tuesday they would push on without the United States.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told a news conference that Japan would continue to work with other TPP member countries to promote free trade and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he would continue discussions with the US.
“I believe the United States also understands the importance of free trade. So, it’s important to continue to closely communicate with[Washington],” Kishida said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would talk directly to Trump about TPP in a future meeting, according to spokesman Yoshihide Suga.