The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott says the government should not allow a fear of inflaming tensions with China get in the way of accepting Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

Abbott also called on the Australian government to urge the US to “reconsider their aloofness from the TPP, which was originally their own idea”.

China and Taiwan have submitted duelling bids to enter the regional trade pact, which currently has 11 members including Australia, Japan and New Zealand – but not the US, which walked away from the deal under Donald Trump.

Abbott said on Thursday his disposition was “strongly in favour of Taiwan entering the TPP”, adding he couldn’t think of many reasons to block its admission.

“The only argument that occurs to me is that it might upset China,” Abbott told an Australian parliamentary inquiry into expanding membership of the trade pact.

“But given that China is not a member of the TPP, is unlikely to become a member of the TPP, and is already in a state of high dudgeon against Australia and many other countries, I don’t see that China is going to be any more upset than it already is.”

The comments come after the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, said it would have to overcome “some political problems” to be successful in its bid to join the trade grouping, which is now officially known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TPP.

Tsai said on Wednesday the move was important to Taiwan’s economy and trade. It was also seen as a first step towards free trade agreements with the US and Europe.

Taiwan’s bid, submitted six days after China’s, was lodged under the same name it uses as a member of the World Trade Organization, “the separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu”.

But the Chinese government has warned against Taiwan’s accession to the trade grouping, maintaining its position that the democratic self-ruled island is “an inalienable part of China’s territory”.

“China … firmly rejects Taiwan’s accession to any agreement or organisation of official nature,” a foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, told reporters in Beijing last week.

Abbott recently expressed a degree of regret about the free trade agreement his government signed with Beijing in 2015, telling a thinktank that China’s behaviour under Xi Jinping was a “hell of a wake-up call” for Australia.

Source: The Guardian

• Vietnam's economy shows gradual recovery: WB's report
• Green Trade Frontiers and the EU’s Blueprint for Sustainable Agricultural Markets
• More efforts needed to maintain export growth to China: Insiders
• It is expected that there are higher orders and revenue in the second quarter from European businesses
• Harnessing Asia’s Free Trade Agreements