Let’s work together on Taiwan, former Japanese ambassador Sumio Kusaka urges

Australia and Japan urged to join forces to fast-track consideration of Taiwan’s entry into one of the region’s top trading blocs.

Former Japanese ambassador Sumio Kusaka has reached out to Australia. Picture: Kym Smith

Former Japanese ambassador to Australia Sumio Kusaka has urged Australia and Japan to join forces to fast-track consideration of Taiwan’s entry into one of the region’s top trading blocs.

Writing in The Australian on Thursday, Mr Kusaka says Taiwan is “far better placed” than China to be admitted to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agree­ment for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but warns the window for its entry could be closing.

China made a surprise bid to join the CPTPP on September 16, just hours after the AUKUS ­security partnership between ­Australia, the US and the UK was announced.

Mr Kusaka says Australia and Japan must now “play their cards carefully”, urging both nations to co-sponsor a working group on Taiwan’s admission to the agreement before Japan hands the CPTPP chairmanship over to Singapore next year.

“If China is accepted into the CPTPP, it should be remembered that decisions on new members are taken on a unanimous basis; any one nation can block an application,” he writes in the article, commissioned by Asialink.

“This has implications for whether the US and Taiwan might join in the future,” he adds. “Taiwan is far better placed to join now than China, given the ­latter’s heavy reliance on state-owned enterprises, lack of protection for labour rights, and widespread use of subsidies, just to name a few.”

Mr Kusaka warns that when the CPTPP chairmanship changes next year, “China will undoubtedly pressure the Singapore government not to proceed with Taiwan’s membership process”.

The regional trade group, formed in 2018, includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. China, Taiwan and Britain have lodged applications to join.

Taiwan has asked Australia to support its membership bid, saying it can boost high-technology trade flows and demand for Australian minerals. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office representative Elliott Charng said supporting Taiwan’s application would “send a strong message” on Chinese economic coercion against Australia.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan said in September that China – which has slapped $20bn in trade bans on Australia – would be unable to join the CPTPP until it convinced members of its “track ­record of compliance” with existing trade agreements and World Trade Organisation rules.

But New Zealand has left the door open to China joining the trade pact if it can “reach the standards that we have set”.

Mr Kusaka argues that admitting Taiwan to the CPTPP, and encouraging the US to rethink its rejection of the agreement, could “contribute to regional peace and stability”. He also urges a quick agreement between Australia and Japan on a Reciprocal Access Agreement to enable greater military co-operation between the two nations.

Talks on the agreement – agreed in principle by Scott Morrison and former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga last year – have dragged on for years amid questions over immunities for Australian personnel if they commit crimes in Japan, which has the death penalty for the most serious offences.

Mr Kusaka says the agreement, which requires the approval of the Japanese parliament, “would greatly enhance our co-ordination and capacity to co-operate”.

“With the re-election of the Fushida government, I hope the RAA now can be signed off as soon as possible, taking advantage of the opportunity presented at this critical juncture,” he writes.

Mr Kusaka also describes the AUKUS partnership between Australia, the US and UK as a “brilliant and audacious act of diplomacy”, saying it has sent “a clear signal to China that bullying and harassment will be responded to with firm resolve”.

He warns against “groundless optimism” over China’s strategic ambitions, citing Japan’s own ­decision to spark “a horrific and deadly war” in the Pacific in 1941.

He warns the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea are at risk of invasion. If this were to occur, “Japan would have to take all necessary measures to dispel the aggressor”, he warns.

COMMENTARY P11