TPP deal reached without U.S.
Last-minute compromise made after five hours of talks that PM Trudeau skipped
DANANG, VIETNAM— Trade ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries said they reached an agreement Saturday to proceed with the free-trade Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that was in doubt after President Donald Trump abandoned it. However, an immediate formal endorsement by the countries’ leaders meeting in Vietnam appeared unlikely.
A statement issued in the early hours Saturday said an accord was reached on “core elements” of the 11-member pact. The compromise was delayed by last-minute disagreements that prevented the TPP leaders from meeting to endorse a plan on Friday.
“Ministers are pleased to announce that they have agreed on the core elements of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership,” the 11 nations said in a statement.
Japan’s delegate to the talks, Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, told reporters that disagreements that cropped up Friday had been resolved in five hours of talks that stretched late into the night.
“We have confirmed there was no mistake about us having reached a basic agreement,” Motegi said.
Asked by reporters if the deal had the support of Canada, whose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not show up for the meeting planned for Friday, Motegi said “yes.”
“Canada did agree, and that means the ‘top’ also agreed,” he said. Japanese media reported that the Japanese and Vietnamese co-chairs of the ministerial meetings would hold a news conference Saturday on the sidelines of the summit of the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation forum, which wraps up later Saturday.
Despite enthusiasm for sticking with the plan after the U.S. withdrawal under Trump in January, criticism over various issues persists. Detractors of the TPP say it favours corporate interests over labour and other rights.
Trudeau said days before arriving in Danang that he would not be rushed into signing an agreement that did not suit Canada’s interests.
Aspects of the trade pact have raised hackles also over a requirement that companies be allowed to sue governments for lack of enforcement of related laws.
The proposed basic agreement reached in Danang said that the ministers maintained “the high standards, overall balance and integrity of the TPP while ensuring the commercial and other interests of all participants and preserving our inher- ent right to regulate, including the flexibility of the parties to set legislative and regulatory priorities.” The TPP member countries are trying to find a way forward without the U.S., the biggest economy and, before Trump took office, one of its most assertive supporters.
Trump has said he prefers countryto-country deals and is seeking to renegotiate several trade pacts to, as he says, “put America first.”
Trump reiterated his markedly different stance on trade before the 21member 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.”
The president said the U.S. would no longer join “large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”
As for China, Trump said he’d spoken “openly and directly” with President Xi Jinping about the nation’s abusive trade practices and “the enormous trade deficits they have produces with the United States.”
It was a stark change in tone from the day before, when Trump was Xi’s guest of honour during a state visit in Beijing. There, Trump opted for flattering Xi and blaming past U.S. presidents for the trade deficit.