Ministry of Commerce: China has the willingness and ability to join CPTPP

At the State Council's regular policy briefing on April 23rd, Wang Shouwen, the representative and deputy minister of international trade negotiations at the Ministry of Commerce, stated in response to questions from reporters that China has the willingness and ability to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP).
Wang Shouwen said that China is willing to join the CPTPP. In 2021, China officially proposed to join the CPTPP.   The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposes that China should further expand its opening-up. Joining the CPTPP is to further expand openness. Last year's Central Economic Work Conference also mentioned that China will promote its accession to the CPTPP.
Meanwhile, China has the ability to join the CPTPP. China has conducted in-depth research on all the provisions of the CPTPP and evaluated the costs and benefits that China will incur when joining the CPTPP. We believe that China has the ability to fulfill its CPTPP obligations. "Wang Shouwen said, in fact, China has already conducted pilot experiments in some free trade pilot zones and free trade ports to compare high standard obligations such as rules, standards, and management of the CPTPP, and will promote them on a larger scale when conditions are mature.
Wang Shouwen emphasized that joining the CPTPP is in China's interest, in the interest of all CPTPP members, and also in the interest of the Asia Pacific region and even the global economic recovery. For China, joining the CPTPP is conducive to further expanding openness, deepening reform, and promoting high-quality development. For the existing 11 members of the CPTPP, China's accession means a threefold increase in the number of consumers and a 1.5-fold increase in the total GDP of its member countries. According to internationally renowned research institutions, if the current revenue of CPTPP is 1, China's accession will increase the overall revenue of CPTPP to 4.
In addition, Wang Shouwen stated that in the Asia Pacific region, under the APEC framework, 21 members are promoting the establishment of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Agreement (FTAAP). FTAAP has two wheels, one is RCEP and the other is CPTPP. Both RCEP and CPTPP have come into effect, and China is a member of RCEP. If China joins the CPTPP, it will help further push these two wheels forward and promote FTAAP. This is crucial for regional economic integration and the stability, safety, reliability, and efficiency of the local industrial chain supply chain. We look forward to all 11 member countries supporting China's accession to the CPTPP