A U.S. return to the Pacific trade pact might not be so easy.
BEIJING — As trade tensions with China escalate, President Donald Trump has found new appeal in a regional trade pact he once called a “rape of our country.”
The pact’s members — including some of America’s most stalwart allies — might not make it so easy to come back.
Officials in Japan, Australia and New Zealand reacted coolly Friday to Trump’s remarks that he would be interested in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership after rejecting it so publicly just a year ago. While the U.S. would significantly bolster the pact if it signed up, its entry would require intense negotiations — and current members will expect significant concessions from the American side.
Comparing the multicountry trade agreement to “a glasswork,” Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, cautioned against any efforts to change it to accommodate Trump.
“It’s difficult to bring part of the pact and renegotiate it,” he said, calling it a “well-balanced pact” that carefully addressed the needs of the current 11 member nations.
“We’ve got a deal” already, said Steven Ciobo, Australia’s trade minister, who added, “I can’t see that all being thrown open to appease the United States.”
An early test of the potential for the United States to rejoin could come as soon as next week, when Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister and an ardent champion of the pact, is to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump faces a growing domestic backlash from corporations, farmers and others over fears that he is igniting a trade war with China, the United States’ largest single trading partner. Trump has warned that he could levy tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to threaten retaliatory measures aimed at American soybeans, airplanes and other products.
Negotiating a new pact could take years. Still, rekindling negotiations could make it hard for China to play off the United States against its allies by promising to shift business from one to another if a trade war breaks out.
It could be a way to assuage American farmers and businesses hurt by Chinese tariffs by assuring robust markets for U.S. products in countries that signed onto the deal, like Japan, Australia and South Korea.