Over the course of 2021, four economies – the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, and Ecuador – formally applied to join the 11 countries that make up the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). South Korea has additionally sent strong signals that it hopes to join the agreement. Missing from this list is the United States, which withdrew from the pact in 2017 and, despite widespread recognition in Washington that the move was a strategic blunder, shows no signs of returning in the near term. Other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, however, have suggested they will pursue membership, including three countries in Southeast Asia: Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
These three countries have expressed varying degrees of interest in joining the CPTPP and have informally studied what it would take to formally accede to the trade…
