THE LURE OF TRADE WITH THE ASEAN NATIONS Not that such a move is likely to go down well in either Washington or London, where the emphasis is very much on expanding links in the Asia-Pacific region with the likes of India, Australia and the ASEAN nations – Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – but definitely not China. "Increasing concerns over


China’s assertive moves in the Indo- Pacific have resulted in greater diplomatic efforts in the region by the US, Britain and the European Union, with India, Australia and the 10-nation ASEAN group at the forefront of their focus," commented the South China Morning Post. "Australia is engaged in


escalating trade and geopolitical disputes with China, while India has had military confrontations with China on the Himalayas in the last year, with dozens of casualties. "US President-elect Joe Biden


has also emphasised the need to rebuild US alliances after four years of President Donald Trump’s go-it- alone strategy with China." Although Mr Biden's anti-


Beijing rhetoric is likely to be less strident than his predecessor's, the new president has made it clear he has no time for China’s trade practices, let alone its human rights record. In a think-tank report this


winter, the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International


Economics (PIIE) said negotiating a new trade deal with Asia-Pacific countries would help the US to reassert its leadership in the region while countering China’s growing dominance. Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at


PIIE and lead author of the report, said Mr Biden should work to renew ties


with Asia “perhaps sooner


rather than later”, adding: “The incoming Biden administration’s domestic policies to strengthen US output and employment and to support the most vulnerable in society should not deter it from attending to the dramatic changes in the Asia-Pacific region." Several analysts have suggested


the US could join the CPTPP, a renegotiated and renamed version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the US was originally part of under Barack Obama but which was abandoned by Donald Trump in 2017.


UK KEEN TO JOIN THE CTPP It is this trade agreement among 11 nations – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – that Britain is so keen to join now that it has cut its ties with the European Union. "The CPTPP is important to the


UK first of all because it will give us deep access to a nine trillion pounds market but also because it helps the UK diversify its supply chains more broadly and makes us more resilient," said Ms Truss. And, of course, were the US


to join the group, too, there would be an effective UK-US trade deal in place without many of the complications encountered in existing transatlantic talks. "The UK is in the preparatory


stages of formally applying for CPTPP membership, which is expected to be formally lodged in early 2021. Consequently, the UK has begun discussions with CPTPP member nations as preparatory groundwork for its potential formal application for CPTPP membership," Rajiv Biswas, Asia- Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit, told Deutsche Welle. "The 11 CPTPP nations


generally have good political and economic relations with the UK, which should ease the UK's path towards accession to the CPTPP." Ironically, immediately after


signing the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive


Economic


Partnership (RCEP) trade pact in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised diplomats worldwide by announcing that China would actively consider joining the CPTPP. But Miyake Kuni, a former


career diplomat and now an adviser to the Japanese government, wrote in a recent article in Japan Today that Mr Xi's announcement was pure propaganda and that existing members of the CPTPP would never accept Chinese membership. “Based on my experience as


Japan’s chief negotiator for trade in services at the World Trade Organisation from 1994 to 1996," he added, "I don’t expect China to abide by the ordinary rules or regulations for joining the free trade agreement." Besides, Beijing now has its role


in RCEP to enjoy – a trade pact comprising the ten ASEAN nations plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. India played an important role during the eight years of discussions over the formation of the pact but withdrew last year The aim of RCEP is to


eliminate tariffs on a wide range of products for its member countries and establish common rules for e-commerce, trade and intellectual property. And though Beijing celebrates its existence because it is free of Western input, it might not be to China's economic advantage. Nikkei Asia reported in


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