Japanese PM says China won't be able to join Trans-Pacific Partnership under Xi Jinping

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Sunday said that China may never be able to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, not until it has the current leadership in Beijing. China had recently shown interest in joining the free-trade agreement signed between 11 countries in 2018. Suga, while speaking to a commercial radio broadcaster on January 3, said it would be challenging for any country to join the TPP where the state runs most businesses. 

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In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping had said that Beijing is open to joining the agreement. Earlier in May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had said that his country has an open and positive attitude towards joining the CPTPP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a renegotiated version of TPP agreed between the signatories after the withdrawal of the United States in 2017. 

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US withdrawal 

The US government withdrew from the agreement after President Donald Trump took over the White House. After the US' withdrawal, the remaining countries renegotiated another deal with most of the provisions of TPP as they called it the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The renegotiated deal came into force on December 30, 2018. 

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According to experts, China saw the United States' withdrawal from the deal as an opportunity to assert its influence in Asia by joining the agreement and gaining an edge over Washington in the ongoing geopolitical battle between the top two largest economies of the world. The deal would also give China enough trade benefits to bolster its path towards becoming the world's biggest economy in the future. 

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(With inputs from ANI)