Last week in Vancouver, Canada hosted the eighth commission meeting of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an 11-member trade bloc responsible for roughly 15 per cent of global GDP.
In a joint statement, member economies acknowledged the “increasingly fragmented and unpredictable” trade landscape and stated the benefits of trade must be “shared across society,” particularly among women, Indigenous Peoples, and micro, small, and medium enterprises.
As our recent report revealed, Canada’s merchandise trade with the seven Asia Pacific (AP7) economies in the CPTPP — Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam — grew from C$48 billion in 2018 to C$66 billion in 2023.
That increase was primarily driven by Canadian imports of consumer goods and industrial machinery from the AP7. Canada-Vietnam merchandise trade has seen the most growth since 2018, increasing by 117 per cent from 2019-23.
The CPTPP represents just 4.4 per cent of Canada’s global merchandise trade, whereas CUSMA accounts for more than 67 per cent and CETA accounts for eight per cent.
APF Canada and Global Affairs Canada co-hosted a CPTPP Policy Forum on Inclusive Trade to complement last week’s meeting.
Accession watch
Economies seeking to join the CPTPP now must satisfy the three ‘Auckland Principles’: a preparedness to meet the agreement’s “high standards,” a demonstrated pattern of complying with trade commitments, and support from all CPTPP members.
Last week, members established an ‘accession working group’ to negotiate Costa Rica’s entry into the agreement.
Taiwan and China applied to join the bloc within a week of each other in 2021, but members have made no announcements about either application. Ecuador, Indonesia, Ukraine, and Uruguay have also expressed interest in joining the agreement. The U.K is set to accede to the bloc on December 15.
The bloc’s joint statement noted that “economic coercion is not in keeping with the high standards of the Agreement,” suggesting Beijing’s accession bid, for one, won’t come to fruition anytime soon. Canada will likely focus on countering economic coercion during its G7 presidency in 2025.
