The Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement covering 11 member countries in the Asia-Pacific region came into force on Dec 30, 2018. Together, they account for 13 percent of the global GDP. Compared with the previous trade agreements, the CPTPP is characterized by wide geographical coverage and high standards, and it puts multiple pressures on China.

At present, China has signed 14 free trade agreements, and most of them are located in the Asia-Pacific region. Cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region is the core of China's FTA strategy. The implementation of the CPTPP agreement will gradually form a zero-tariff trade circle with Japan as the core, which weakens China's bargaining power on tariffs in FTA negotiations and is not conducive to the bilateral and regional FTA negotiations of China.

China's entry into the CPTPP would be a good move. First, China's entry into the CPTPP might help to alleviate Sino-US trade frictions as it would signal a voluntary pursuit of higher trade standards, conscious integration into international rules and automatic reduction of protective barriers. The principal reason for the Sino-US trade disputes is the fact that China's domestic market openness has not reached the expectations of the United States. China's entry into the CPTPP would be a clear signal that China would be willing to further open up its domestic market.

Second, China's accession to the CPTPP would help China's new round of domestic reform, directly address the key and difficult issues in the process of reform and opening-up, and break through institutional obstacles. In recent years, China's supply-side reform, reform of State-owned enterprises, public-private partnership reform and other institutional reforms are facing many barriers, and the pressure of high-standard rules will help to promote a new round of domestic reform.

It is possible for China to join the CPTPP, as it meets most of the standards set out in the 30 Chapters of the CPTPP agreement. China already meets 80 percent of the provisions of the CPTPP, including market access for most products, trade facilitation, and on the technical barriers to trade and e-commerce. These clauses of the CPTPP are almost the same as the highest standard FTA agreement that China has signed, such as the FTA agreement between China and South Korea, which shows that China has the ability to meet the requirements of the CPTPP.

There are many other provisions, such as cooperation and capacity-building, development, regulatory coherence, transparency and anti-corruption provisions, which have no substantive content, but describe them at the level of principles, and do not involve specific measures to put them into effect.

Second, some clauses are in line with the direction of China's reform. The clauses on environmental protection and labor standards conform to the development trend and the reform process of China. Environmental rules in the CPTPP are complementary to WTO's environmental rules, which focus more on environmental obligations, dispute settlement of environmental issues and improving the enforcement of environmental measures. In recent years, China's environmental protection policies have been intensively implemented. Improving environmental standards is also one of the goals of China's reform.

However, there are also some difficulties. A few of clauses create great barriers to China's entry to the CPTPP, such as government procurement, the rules on State-owned enterprises and telecommunications. China is not yet a member of the GPA or Government Procurement Agreement. This requires that subcentral entities (provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government) and State-owned enterprises should be included in the commitments. However, China can hardly meet the requirements at present.

China needs to prepare for entry to the CPTPP in advance. First, China needs to make full use of the APEC platform and actively engage in dialogue with major CPTPP members. A new APEC conference will be held in Chile in 2019. One of the topics is "Regional Interconnection". China may take this opportunity to negotiate in depth with the CPTPP countries in order to make preliminary progress. There is a precedent for using the APEC platform. Japan has had a dialogue with countries in APEC after the meeting in 2017. All countries in the CPTPP are members of APEC, and the APEC meeting is the most convenient dialogue platform. Of course, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus China, Japan and South Korea Summit ("10+3") is also a good platform.

Second, China needs to upgrade the existing free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties with all CPTPP members. Among them, China has signed FTAs with Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Peru. China and Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam are signatories to the China-ASEAN FTA. China has also signed BITs with Japan, Australia, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam. These agreements are important basis for negotiations between China and CPTPP members.

Third, China needs to make full use of free trade ports. Gradual reform is the successful experience of China's reform and opening-up policy. The first try in free trade ports helps to timely discover the problems in the process of opening up, and formulate measures in advance to pave the way for the implementation of comprehensive opening up.

Generally speaking, joining the CPTPP would be a great move for China. China should be prepared.

Liu Bin is associate professor and Yu Jimin is graduate student at China Institute for WTO Studies of University of International Business and Economics. 

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.