Japan has said China’s “readiness” to join a transpacific trade pact originally designed by Washington to limit Chinese influence in the region would need to be judged on its merits after Beijing filed a surprise formal application to join the group.
For China to sign up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was started by former US president Barack Obama, Beijing would need to meet the deal’s requirements in areas related to intellectual property, state subsidies and state-owned enterprises, Japan said.
“We need to carefu