Disagreement over TPP pact as ministers huddle in Vietnam

DANANG, VIETNAM — Asia-Pacific nations struggled to salvage the sprawling TPP trade deal yesterday following America's rejection of the original pact, with Canada refuting reports an agreement in principle had been struck.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was initially a USled initiative between 12 nations accounting for 40 percent of global GDP, but deliberately excluding Washington's regional rival China.

It was thrown into disarray when President Donald Trump abruptly pulled out of the deal at the start of the year, dismaying allies including Japan, Australia, Canada and Vietnam.

Trade ministers from the remaining members — dubbed the TPP-11 — are in Vietnam trying to save the pact on the sidelines of the annual APEC summit.

Reports in Japanese media late Thursday said an agreement in principle had been reached to press ahead with the TPP-11 without the US.

"We reached an agreement that has a high level of standard which also strikes a good balance," Japan's economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who co-chaired the meetings in Danang, told reporters.

But claims of a breakthrough were later denied by Canada's trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

"Despite reports, there is no agreement in principle on TPP," he said in a tweet.

A Japanese government official in Tokyo on Friday told AFP that Motegi's remarks meant the TPP-11 group had reached "a basic agreement at the ministerial level" which would then need to go to the leaders of each country before being signed off.

Japan, the world's third largest economy, is leading the charge to revive the TPP, keen to demonstrate that multilateral trade pacts can thrive without US support.