[Epoch Times October 01, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Xiao Jie, Sydney, Australia), former Australian Prime Minister Albert urged the United Kingdom and Taiwan to join the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership” (CPTPP), even if this is possible Will annoy the CCP. He also accused the CCP of bullying.
According to the Australian News Limited website, Albert said that Taiwan should join the CPTPP, even if it might irritate the CCP. He said that the superpower should not be allowed to approach the CPTPP until it abandons its “bullying” strategy.
On Thursday (September 30), Albert submitted his opinion as a citizen in an investigation conducted by the Australian Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade on the expansion of CPTPP membership.
The committee was informed that there were more submissions in support of Taiwan than “to (support) any potential member.”
The predecessor of CPTPP was the “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement” (TPP) led by the United States, which was a major strategic move by former U.S. President Barack Obama to promote free trade and globalization.
After President Trump entered the White House in 2017, he immediately signed an executive order and announced his withdrawal from the TPP. After that, Japan led the agreement with 10 other countries in 2018 to change the name of TPP to CPTPP.
Albert stated that he “strongly supports” Taiwan’s participation in the CPTPP.
“Now, I’m very happy to hear the arguments against Taiwan’s acceptance,” he said. “The only reason I can think of is that it might annoy China.
“However, considering that China (the Communist Party) is not a TPP member, it is unlikely to become a TPP member, and has been highly dissatisfied with Australia and many other countries, I think China (the Communist Party) will not be more angry than it is now.”
Albert said that any country that wants to sign the partnership needs to “obey the rules.”
“China should not be allowed to approach the TPP, at least until it gives up its boycott of Australian trade. To put it mildly, these boycotts are capricious and arbitrary,” he said.
“China (the Communist Party) has been using trade to bully Australia. China (the Communist Party) has weaponized trade and regarded trade as a strategic weapon; I can understand why, because it can exert influence on other countries.
“At the moment, I think what we need last is to further integrate China (the Communist Party) into the world economic order… While China (the Communist Party) maintains its boycott of Australian products, even let us consider supporting China (the Communist Party) to join the TPP. It’s wrong, and it’s also a sign of weakness.”
Albert also emphasized his position in his testimony, that is, in accordance with the formal request of the United Kingdom earlier this year, to accept the United Kingdom as a member of the CPTPP.
He said that if the United States reconsider joining the CPTPP, it will be an “excellent thing.” The United States played an important role in establishing the TPP, but it was unable to sign the agreement due to problems with the Chinese Communist Party at that time.
Albert said: “Of course I think it’s time to start discussions with the United States, whether they should reconsider their indifferent attitude towards TPP, whether this might not be in their national interest, and in the broader sense of our region. Benefits, after all, TPP was originally their idea.”
CPTPP is a free trade agreement jointly observed between Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. Brunei, Chile and Malaysia will join the agreement after completing their respective approval procedures.
Editor in charge: Yue Ming
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