I ask the right hon. Gentleman not to tempt me beyond my new clause. I always happy to look at this issue, and I believe in debate. It is vital, otherwise Governments are never held to account.
2.45 pm
It is important to emphasise that once the Bill is passed, the CRaG process cannot be applied to future accessions. I am aware that it is against long-standing UK policy to tie the Government’s hands on trade. That is why the vote provided for in the new clause would not be binding. That allows the Government to take note of the debate and perhaps change policy in due course.
Article 30.4 of the CPTPP agreement explicitly provides that accession may be
“subject to...the applicable legal procedures of each Party and acceding State or separate customs territory (accession candidate).”
The UK’s procedures already allow for some parliamentary scrutiny. There is no legal basis to argue that enhanced scrutiny would impact the UK’s accession.
The UK is not alone; other Governments have spoken freely in the past about their opposition to China’s accession—in particular, key UK allies Japan and Australia. Australia stated that it would not endorse China’s application while Beijing continues to block the import of Australian goods including wine and barley. That is a
matter for Australia to debate. It has joined Canada, Japan and New Zealand in condemning China’s economic coercion. Despite a little softening in its line, Australia was still warning that there was no chance China would join in the near term.
Japan, a country that has been most astute in dealing with China economically, continues to see China’s application as fundamentally geopolitical. Japan’s Minister of Finance stated:
“China...is far removed from the free, fair and highly transparent world of TPP, chances that it can join are close to zero”.
He said that China’s application
“can be thought of as a move to prevent Taiwan from joining.”
Taiwan, by the way, is second up. For those who do not know, it is not about countries but economies, which is why Taiwan can bid to join the CPTPP even if its status as a nation is not recognised by everyone.