China has nothing to fear from Trans-Pacific Partnership omission: Australian trade minister

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Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb speaks as the twelve Trans-Pacific Partnership member countries participate in the closing press conference in Atlanta. Photo: EPA

Published: 3:00am, 16 Oct 2015Updated: 3:00am, 16 Oct 2015

China has nothing to fear from being left out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and should instead press ahead with another regional trade pact to expand its economic reach, Australia's trade and investment minister said yesterday.

Rather than seeking to join the TPP, widely seen as a tool for the United States to contain China's rise, Andrew Robb said Beijing should focus on concluding talks over the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) - a China-led Asian free trade agreement covering 16 countries in the region.

"I don't think China has got anything to fear from the TPP," Robb told the .

While the 12-nation TPP's full text has yet to be released, there have been concerns the pact would prevent China from writing the future rules of global trade and clip its economic clout.

Initially objecting to the deal, Beijing recently shifted its stance and said it was open to the idea of joining the TPP. It was also pushing to speed up talks on an Asian equivalent - the RCEP.

Robb said the quickest route for China was to continue to play a leading role in the RCEP talks and work within regional blocs, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to get negotiations started on combining the TPP and the RCEP.