With several trade meetings having now taken place, and additional high level ones on the horizon, China and Australia continue to make progress on improving their trade relations, even in the face of political hurdles such as an Australian security agreement with the U.S. and the UK, and new

Last week, there was some confusion over Australia's position on Taiwan's CPTPP application when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to suggest that Australia would not support Taiwan's bid to join, but subsequent statements seem to clarify that Australia will evaluate Taiwan's application

After the 7th Singapore-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting in Canberra, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a press conference in which they discussed issues related to China's application to join the CPTPP and U.S-China decoupling.

In the context of a trip to Japan and South Korea, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell commented on issues related to critical minerals, trade relations with China, and China's CPTPP accession. On China's CPTPP accession prospects, Farrell expressed doubt about China's chances of joining

Over the past few days, there have been meetings and trips involving several CPTPP countries and their Taiwanese counterparts which have promoted Taiwan's CPTPP accession application.

In a foreign policy speech on July 7, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave a foreign policy speech that touched on several trade and foreign policy topics related to China.

In a recent policy brief, trade policy expert Jeffrey Schott offered some commentary on China's accession process for the CPTPP.