South Korea announces timing of CPTPP application

Seoul, Dec 27 (EFE).- South Korea intends to submit its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in April, the country’s finance minister announced on Monday.

Hong Nam-ki said Monday in a meeting with export and trade officials that the government seeks to submit the application by mid-April 2022, according to Yonhap news agency.

A working group made up of members of various ministries will be formed to manage the impact of joining the CPTPP, he added.

Seoul announced two weeks ago its intention to join the pact, a possibility that it had been studying for years.

South Korean accession is a delicate matter at the domestic level since it requires an important opening of internal markets, something that sectors such as agriculture are opposed to, taking the view that it will sink farmers.

Hong said then that the government would survey public opinion and social debate and that the formal request would be presented before President Moon Jae-in’s term expires in May.

The CPTPP, which has 11 signatories (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam), is the renegotiated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), led by then-president Barack Obama’s United States administration and later scrapped by Donald Trump.

South Korea’s announcement of its intended accession came just three months after China, and also Taiwan, began procedures to join the CPTPP. EFE

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