William Hung
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China communist party paper says country should join U.S.-led trade pact| Reuters
BEIJING (Reuters) - China should join at an appropriate time the U.S.-backed regional trade accord the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as its broad aims are in line with China's own economic reform agenda, an influential Communist Party newspaper said on Sunday.
China is not among the 12 Pacific Rim countries who earlier this month agreed the trade pact, the most ambitious in a generation. The accord includes Australia and Japan among economies worth a combined $28 trillion.
China's trade minister has said the country does not feel targeted by it, but will evaluate the likely impact comprehensively.
In a commentary, the biweekly Study Times, published by the Central Party School that trains rising officials, admitted there were those in China who viewed the TPP as a "plot" to isolate and restrain the country's global ambitions.
But the broad aims of the TPP, including reducing things such as administrative approvals and protecting the environment, were what China wants to achieve too, it wrote.
China has been trying to shift to a more sustainable, ecologically-sound, consumption-led economic growth model.
"The rules of the TPP and the direction of China's reforms and opening up are in line," the newspaper said.
"China should keep paying close attention and at an appropriate time, in accordance with progress on domestic reform, join the TPP, while limiting the costs associated to the greatest degree," it added.
However, how China's state-owned industries might be affected by joining the TPP would need careful consideration, as the party has made clear their key role in the economy, the newspaper said.