The South Korean government will decide to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) next month. As China and Taiwan recently submitted an application to join, the government also agreed that Korea cannot delay the decision any longer.
The government is planning to hold a foreign ministers' meeting as early as November to decide whether to join the CPTPP. The meeting was initially scheduled for October 25 but was reportedly postponed to early next month, considering internal reviews and the G20 finance ministers meeting held on October 14.
CPTPP was an FTA between the US and Asia-Pacific regions led by the US Obama administration under the name of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP). However, as the Trump administration declared its withdrawal from the TPP, it was renamed CPTPP and launched.
Amidst the current situation where the China-oriented global value chain (GVC) is weakening due to the US-China trade war and COVID-19 pandemic, CPTPP is expected to be a strong market of GVC, especially in Japan and some ASEAN countries.
President Moon Jae-in previously mentioned 'trade strength' at the 'trading day' event held in December last year and said he would speed up joining the CPTPP. As multilateralism led by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has weakened and the importance of the Mega FTA has emerged, the government has been considering joining the CPTPP in preparation for the CPTPP trade bloc in the Asia-Pacific region.
Britain, which withdrew from the EU, officially submitted formal requests to join in February this year, and China and Taiwan last month. (ANI/Global Economic)
( With inputs from ANI )
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