Taiwan should join Australia in trans-Pacific trade bloc, Canberra told | South China Morning Post

Australian businesses and industry groups with connections to Taiwan are trying to coax Canberra into advocating for Taiwanࢀ™s membership into a large trans-Pacific trade block, spurred on by Britain becoming the first new country to begin talks to join the pact since its inception in 2018. Various Australia-based groups have submitted letters to a new Australian parliamentary inquiry looking into the merits of expanding the membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which currently comprises 11 countries with a combined half a billion people. The groups say Taiwanࢀ™s commitments to rule of law, human rights and…