Taiwan wants to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, according to Taiwan’s top trade negotiator John Deng.
In a recent interview with Inside U.S. Trade, Deng said, “We think we are there, we can meet all the standards,” adding, “We think we can also achieve that high level of liberalization and market access.”
Deng doesn’t want the Republic of China (Taiwan) to be left out of the now-revised and renamed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Deng explained to Inside U.S. Trade that isolation from the agreement would be a “burden” for Taiwan’s businesses. It could also result in trade diversion, in which nations that currently purchase Taiwanese goods and service would instead import such goods from other nations within the agreement.
Article 5 of the CPTPP opens the agreement to accession once it goes into effect. “After the date of entry into force of this Agreement, any State or separate customs territory may accede to this Agreement, subject to such terms and conditions as may be agreed between the Parties and that State or separate customs territory,” Article 5 of the CPTPP reads.
“Deng said Taiwan was looking to join CPTPP as soon as possible after the agreement enters into force, which is expected early next year,” Inside U.S. Trade reported.
Considering how the CPTPP has been portrayed in the media as an economic counterweight to mainland Communist China, it is understandable why Taiwan would want to be part of the agreement. Anything to oppose the ruling Communist Party regime in the mainland and to further distinguish Taiwan’s own unique identity as a separate nation is generally in Taiwan’s interests.
However, as this publication has previously reported, the original TPP agreement opened accession to all member states of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), of which mainland Communist China is one. Indeed, the final point on page two of the original two-page TPP preamble states that member nations will “EXPAND their partnership by encouraging the accession of other States or separate customs territories in order to further enhance regional economic integration and create the foundation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.”
The Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, or FTAAP, is an even larger proposed so-called free trade scheme than the current CPTPP agreement. The FTAAP would include all APEC members, which includes the 11 participating CPTPP countries as well as the United States, Taiwan, and also Russia and China. The latter two — Russia and China — are currently not part of the CPTPP. And shortly after assuming office, President Trump signed an Executive Order formally withdrawing the United States from the then-TPP.
However, considering the United States’ official “one China” policy — recognizing that only one China exists despite the history and friction between the original Republic of China in exile on Taiwan and the communist People’s Republic of China on the mainland — Taiwan’s accession into the CPTPP could potentially be used as a “backdoor” entry for the communist People’s Republic of China into the trade agreement, moving closer toward the realization of the APEC and China’s vision of an FTAAP.
Ultimately, Taiwan can thank U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, and Nixon’s former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, for throwing their anti-communist government under the bus in favor of diplomacy and recognition of the murderous Communist Party regime under the “one China” policy.
While Taiwan’s sovereignty and national security are currently under constant threat from both the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo and People’s Liberation Army on the mainland, it would behoove the island nation not to surrender its sovereignty to the globalist architects of the CPTPP. For these CPTPP globalist architects envision a future convergence, or merger, with the very Chinese Communists that Taiwan is trying to assert its independence from.
Taiwan must resist the temptation for foreign markets lest they trade away their national sovereignty to either the totalitarian Communist Party of China or the pro-CPTPP globalists who would gladly hand them over to the murderous communist regime.
As a result of the massive grassroots educational efforts of The John Birch Society regarding the dangers of losing American sovereignty to the TPP or other globalist entangling “trade” agreements, the United States — under President Trump — has withdrawn from the TPP.
And through continued educational efforts of The John Birch Society, the United States will hopefully stay out of the CPTPP and FTAAP, or whatever other forms that the TPP and similar anti-sovereignty globalist agreements may come in.
Any nation that surrenders its sovereignty, be it Taiwan, the United States, or even Canada, is surrendering its ability to govern its own internal affairs and is willingly denying its people the freedom to influence their own government.
Britons have learned this the hard way, as their freedoms have been trampled upon by the dictates of an unelected European Commission that resides on foreign soil.
In fact, the EU began as a simple trade agreement in Western Europe similar to the TPP/CPTPP or NAFTA today. However, the TPP/CPTPP is further ahead than what the EU was at its inception, because the TPP/CPTPP agreement calls for the creation of its own EU-style ruling commission.
The average person in Taiwan and the United States would have no vote or say on what or how the ruling TPP/CPTPP Commission operates.
Whether it is the Politburo of the Communist Party of China or the future ruling commission of the TPP/CPTPP or even FTAAP, Taiwan is better off remaining a free and independent nation. And the same is true for the United States as it reevaluates its current “free trade” obligations.
Photo of Taipei, Taiwan: tobiasjo via iStock / Getty Images Plus
