 |
| Image: Flickr User - U.S. Department of State |
By Shannon Tiezzi
China is taking a wait-and-see approach on the U.S.-led trade deal.
This week, the 12 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreed on a massive free trade deal spanning both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The deal ends five years of negotiations involving Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam to create a new “high-standard” trade agreement. But the deal notably excludes China, the second-largest economy in the world and the largest in the Asia-Pacific region.
When the TPP negotiations were first announced, the idea was met with widespread skepticism in China. The Obama administration’s new emphasis on the trade agreement coincided with the roll-out of its new “pivot to Asia” policy, later dubbed the “rebalance to Asia.” That stance had moderated somewhat in recent years, with Beijing adopting more of a wait-and-see attitude toward the trade deal, but there are still serious concerns that the TPP plays into a larger U.S. strategy of “containing China.”
Officially, however, China is staying fairly neutral on the TPP. In response to the newly announced deal, a spokesperson from China’s Commerce Ministry said that China “always keeps an open mind toward the construction of systems that are in accordance with World Trade Organization rules and are helpful for promoting economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region.” The spokesperson added that the TPP agreement is one of several important trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region; China hopes the agreement will help push forward other plans for regional trade deals.
Read the full story at The Diplomat