Insight - Malaysia and CPTPP – better late than never

SERC's Lee Heng Guie: If China’s accession to the CPTPP is accepted, what does it mean to the world’s trade landscape? China’s accession to Asia-Pacific’s Economic Cooperation’s dominant CPTPP together with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) will reconfigure the Asia-Pacific’s trade landscape, and bolster China’s clout in the world’s trade post the Covid-19 pandemic recovery, as well as to counter balance the influences of the United States.

CHINA has officially applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which currently has 11 countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

As of 2019, the 11 member countries have a combined population of 508 million (6.6% of the world’s population), generated a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$11.2 trillion (RM46.8 trillion) which is 12.8% of world GDP and accounted for 14.8% of total world trade.