China has no hope of being accepted into a major regional trade pact in the near term, the Australian government has signalled, as members prepare to welcome the UK into the fold this weekend.
The assistant trade minister, Tim Ayres, is visiting New Zealand for a meeting with fellow members of the CPTPP. The UK, which sees joining as part of its “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region, is to be formally accepted as the 12th member on Saturday.
China is also pushing to join, but Ayres signalled that this was not currently on the agenda. “I think consideration of future accession applications is some way off,” he told Guardian Australia.
Ayres described the CPTPP – which stands for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – as “the pre-eminent trade agreement in the world”.
While he did not directly link China’s prospects to resolving numerous ongoing trade disputes with Australia, Ayres spoke glowingly about the UK’s adherence to World Trade Organization rules.
“It’s good to have another major economy that’s got a strong track record of complying with WTO rules and is going to measure up to the CPTPP standards.”
The UK will join founding members Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
China is not the only country or economy that wants to join the CPTPP; others include Taiwan, South Korea and Costa Rica. The existing members must give unanimous support before anyone else joins.
Speaking days after Beijing asked for an extra month to decide whether to scrap tariffs on Australian barley, Ayres said the government was working through the trade issues with China “in a systematic way”.
“Of course, while there’s been some improvement in terms of the removal of trade impediments with China, there is quite some way to go,” he said.
“These trade impediments are not in the interest of Australian exporters, but they’re not in the interests of China or Chinese consumers or Chinese industry either.”
Ayres denied Australia’s trade diversification strategy was under pressure, after the trade minister, Don Farrell, walked away from free trade agreement negotiations with the European Union in Brussels this week saying the offer was inadequate.
Australia had left the EU in no doubt that it would refuse a bad deal, Ayres said, adding that the two sides would return to discussions in about a month.
“It would be a really good outcome if we could secure a final agreement with the European Union, but it’s got to be a deal that is fair dinkum in terms of agricultural access, that offers some real improvements in terms of agricultural access,” he said.
“I think that’s very clear now on the European side.”
China has taken a number of steps to ease trade tensions over the past six months, such as resuming imports of Australian timber, coal and stone fruit – but barley, wine, seafood and red meat remain subject to restrictions.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, raised the trade issues, the detention of Australian citizens, Hong Kong arrest warrants, and Pacific security during a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Jakarta late on Thursday.
“I’ve said that we can grow our bilateral relationship while safeguarding our national interest, provided both countries navigate our differences wisely,” Wong told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
“That’s what we are seeking to do. We have continued to call for the removal of all trade impediments and make the representations that you are aware of about Australians held in China.”
According to a statement issued by China’s foreign ministry, Wang told Wong that relations had “stabilised, improved and developed” due to the joint efforts of both countries.
Reuters reported that Wang also renewed Beijing’s calls for Canberra to provide “a fair, just and non-discriminatory” business environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in Australia.
