BEIJING (Sputnik) — Beijing does not consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal to be directed against China, the country's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said Tuesday.
"We do not think that the TPP deal is directed against China. We also do not think that the TPP deal and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] contradict each other. I think they supplement each other," Gao said at a press conference.
According to the minister, the official text of the agreement has been completely translated into Chinese and some time is needed to analyze the deal.
Gao noted that China always positively regarded transparent regional free trade agreements.
In early February, the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam signed the TPP agreement. Under the TPP deal, a free trade zone was established between these 12 nations that constitute 40 percent of the world’s GDP. The agreement is to be ratified by every participant.
The US President Barack Obama administration had noted previously that the TPP would allow the United States to write the rules of global trade in the 21st century.
