Key: US has to trade with world

New Zealand would want to be near the front of the queue for talks with the United States about any bilateral trade agreement, Trade Minister Todd McClay says.

His comment follow’s US President-elect Donald Trump’s statement that he would withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement on his first day in office, as he looked to pursue ‘‘fair’’ trade agreements instead.

Prime Minister John Key has also said the US cannot just sit there and not trade, particularly with the fast-growing markets in Asia.

Calling the 12-nation agreement ‘‘a potential disaster for our country,’’ Trump said he would file a notification of intent to withdraw from the deal as soon as he takes office on January 20. Trump had long flagged he would dump it.

New Zealand and Australia are two of the signatories to the TPPA and the issue had been discussed at the Apec leaders’ forum in Peru last weekend.

Trump was deeply opposed to the TPPA in campaigning but Prime Minister John Key had harboured slim hopes of a change of heart.

Yesterday Key said Trump’s statement was obviously disappointing but not surprising. There were a lot of alternatives available.

‘‘The US isn’t an island; it can’t just sit there and say it’s not going to trade with the rest of the world,’’ Key said.

‘‘At some point the US would want to think about how it accesses those very fast-growing markets in Asia, and what role it wants to have in Asia.’’

McClay said Trump’s comments were nothing new and New Zealand, which had passed its TPPA legislation, would wait and see. The TPPA was still good for the country and a valuable trade deal for all countries, he said.

‘‘One of our key drivers for TPPA was to get a free trade agreement’’ with the US, he said.

‘‘Obviously, if the Trump Administration wanted to look at new, bilateral FTAs, we would be keen to be near the front of that queue.’’

McClay said despite this, the TPPA would still be the country’s first free trade agreement with Peru, Mexico, Canada and Japan.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said yesterday that Trump’s statement was obviously a blow to the TPPA, but not unexpected. He said Trump was not necessarily anti-free trade and just considered the TPPA a poorquality trade deal.

There was therefore still an opportunity to try to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the US separately, with a focus on achieving a high-quality deal.

‘‘It’s disappointing, there’s no doubt, but it’s not necessarily the end of the world,’’ Hope said.

‘‘Either way it was looking like it might be a challenge.’’

The deal was signed by trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries – although not China – in Auckland in February, concluding seven years of negotiations.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had also been optimistic.

‘‘It may well be over time that the TPP is embraced by the United States … perhaps in the same form it is today, perhaps in a different form,’’ he said in Lima on Sunday.