The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) : The Chinese Perspective

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was accepted by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as one among other pathfinders, including the ASEAN 3, ASEAN 6 and others, for a comprehensive Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). Though the TPP negotiations do not include China at the moment, she is paying close attention to it. In fact, many question the likely success of the TPP with China’s exclusion from the TPP given her prominence in the region. China’s membership in the TPP may in itself be a central strategic challenge for the TPP. The key question is thus: Should China join the TPP? The paper therefore seeks to assess the opportunities and challenges that prevail for China if she was to accede to the TPP. To provide insights for leveraging trade opportunities with the TPP economies, China’s trade potentials with the TPP are empirically tested and compared with that of the ASEAN, ASEAN 3 and ASEAN 6. The trade potentials are derived from an augmented panel gravity model. Finally, the paper contends with the reality of China joining the TPP by examining some of the challenges emanating from the trade-related issues that are considered to be overtly politicized in the TPP