Trans-Pacific trade deal reached without U.S.

DANANG, VIETNAM •Ina major breakthrough, trade ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries said they reached a deal Saturday to proceed with the free-trade TransPacific Partnership deal that was in doubt after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned it.

The deal followed a frenetic, confusing day of talks and media reports that bluntly blamed Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for helping to scuttle a scheduled meeting of leaders to discuss the trade pact.

International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne summoned journalists just before midnight to say that the TPP trade ministers had agreed to a number of key changes that moved the talks closer to a deal. Canada is better off because of the new developments, Champagne said.

“We don’t settle for just any deal,” Champagne said, acknowledging Trudeau’s decidedly downbeat comments from a day earlier. “If it takes one more day, so be it.”

He said the TPP countries agreed to suspend controversial provisions from the original TPP deal related to intellectual property. Leaders in Canada’s tech sector have long pressed Ottawa to have those elements removed from the deal.

Champagne also said the partners established a framework to deal with rules-of-origin issues related to the auto sector and on how the countries will proceed with including cultural exemptions into the treaty.

The parties also agreed, he added, to enhance elements in the pact related to the environment and are much closer to stronger protections of labour rights.

Champagne said Trudeau missed the scheduled meeting because an important bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ran about 25 minutes longer than expected. Trudeau’s office said Abe, co-chair of the leaders’ meeting, cancelled the event after his 50-minute discussion with Trudeau.

In January, Trump pulled out of the deal that was championed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Trump has said he prefers country-to-country deals and is seeking to renegotiate several major trade agreements to, as he says, “put America first.”

Trump reiterated his markedly different stance on trade before the 21-member APEC summit convened late Friday with a gala banquet.

The U.S. president told an APEC business conference that “we are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore.” He lambasted the World Trade Organization and other trade forums as unfair to the United States and reiterated his preference for bilateral trade deals, saying “I am always going to put America first.”

Trump said he would not enter into large trade agreements, alluding to U.S. involvement in the North American Free Trade Agreement and the TPP.

In contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the same group that nations need to stay committed to economic openness or risk being left behind.

The Chinese president drew loud applause when he urged support for the “multilateral trading regime” and progress toward a free-trade zone in the Asia-Pacific. China is not part of the TPP.

APEC operates by consensus and customarily issues non-binding statements. TPP commitments would eventually be ratified and enforced by its members.

But even talks this week on a declaration to cap the APEC summit had to be extended for an extra half-day as ministers haggled over wording. It’s unclear what the exact sticking points were, but officials have alluded to differences over the unequal impact more open trade has had on workers and concerns over automation in manufacturing that could leave many millions in a wide array of industries with no work to do.