Taiwan urges Australia to defy China on Trump-proofing trade pact

Taiwan is urging Australia to stare down opposition from Beijing and support its admission to a sweeping regional free trade pact to help buffer it from the volatility of Donald Trump’s tariff gyrations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced during a visit to Jakarta on Thursday that Australia will back Indonesia’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but Taiwan’s request to join the pact has been stalled since 2021.

Douglas Hsu, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, said Taiwan was well qualified to join the trade pact.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Australia is serving as the rotating chair of the 12-nation grouping this year, giving it responsibility for guiding the group’s activities and priorities.

“We definitely call for Australia’s support of Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP, which we see as the gateway to future trade,” Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Australia, Douglas Hsu, said in an interview with this masthead.

Australia does not recognise Taiwan as a state, meaning its top envoy is known as the head of its economic and cultural office rather than an ambassador.

“Australia and Taiwan have a complementary trade partnership, we believe that we can meet the high standards of the CPTPP regulations and we have a good track record dealing with other trading partners.

“The CPTPP is a trade mechanism, so we definitely will urge all the members to review Taiwan’s case based on the merits instead of the geopolitics.”

Taiwan’s push to join the pact – which covers around 15 per cent of global trade – has been given increased impetus by Trump’s decision to announce a crushing 32 per cent tariff on all Taiwanese imports. The tariffs have since been suspended for 90 days alongside all the US president’s other reciprocal tariffs.

China – whose own application to join the partnership is under review – has fiercely opposed Taiwan being admitted to international trade pacts and multilateral bodies as it claims the self-governing democratic island as part of its sovereign territory.

Referring to China’s opposition to its membership bid, Hsu said several member states had “told us they suffer a kind of pressure from a country that is not currently in the CPTPP itself, so they have some hesitations to agree to let Taiwan in at the moment”.

Hsu praised Australia for backing Taiwan’s bid to be given observer status at the World Health Organisation despite Beijing’s opposition, declaring: “You can definitely stand firm against any kind of coercion.”

Hsu said that Taiwan had been an active member of the World Trade Organisation and APEC for decades, making it a natural fit for the CPTPP, which evolved from the Trans Pacific Partnership when the United States withdrew in 2017.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said consensus was required among the 12 members of the trade pact for new entrants to be admitted.

“Australia and Taiwan have highly complementary economies and a valued trading relationship across industries including agriculture, energy and tourism,” the spokesperson said.

“Any economy seeking to join CPTPP must meet the agreement’s high standards, have a record of complying with international trade commitments, and gain consensus support from CPTPP members.”

Malaysia and Singapore are seen as some of the states most reluctant to support Taiwan’s bid because of their close ties to Beijing.

Costa Rica has been invited to join the pact, even though it submitted its application a year after Taiwan and China.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday expressed his “appreciation and gratitude” to Albanese for agreeing to support his nation’s bid to join the CPTPP, which he believes would provide a major boost for Indonesian exporters.

Taiwan is Australia’s seventh-largest export destination, with Indonesia coming in at number 10.

Hsu said Taiwanese businesspeople were flocking to Australia to seek export opportunities, especially in the green energy sector.

“If they continue to do business with the United States they will have to deal with those tariff issues, so they have to find new market opportunities and Australia is definitely a good market for them,” he said.

Lien Yu-ping, a senior official from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in April that Australia’s tenure as CPTPP chair had opened an important window of opportunity for Taiwan to join the pact.

Lien said that, unlike Taiwan, China was clearly not qualified to join the grouping “given Beijing’s extensive use of subsidies and the lack of transparency of state-owned companies”.

Ratings agency S&P affirmed Taiwan’s AA+ long-term credit rating in April, praising the semiconductor powerhouse’s “vibrant and highly competitive electronics manufacturing sector”.

Albanese alarmed Taiwan in 2022 when he appeared to rule out Taiwanese entry into the pact by stating it was only for “recognised” nation states, rather than economies.

The text of the agreement makes clear that any state or separate customs territory may become a member, meaning Taiwan is eligible.

Hsu said Beijing had been intensifying its harassment of Taiwan, including by holding two days of war games in April featuring long-range, live-fire drills.

He said Taiwan was taking preparations for a possible Chinese invasion or blockade of the island “very seriously”, even though the prospect does not appear imminent.

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