Nations commit to move forward after U.S. pullout
HANOI — Pacific Rim trade ministers meeting in Vietnam committed Sunday to move ahead with the TransPacific Partnership trade pact after the United States pulled out.
New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay said the remaining 11 TPP countries are open to others joining provided they accept the trade agreement’s high standards on labor and environmental protection. He said the door remains open to the U.S., even after President Trump withdrew from the pact in January, saying he prefers bilateral free trade deals.
“It’s clear that each country is having to consider both economic values and strategic importance of this agreement, but in the end there is a lot of unity among all of the countries and a great desire to work together to come up with an agreement among 11 that not only delivers for all of our economies and the people of our countries, it’s also open to other countries in the world to join if they can meet the high standards in the TPP agreement,” McClay said.
Since the U.S withdrawal, Japan and New Zealand have been spearheading efforts to revive the deal. In its current form, the TPP requires U.S. participation before it can go into effect. That means the remaining countries would need to change the rules for any deal to go ahead, and it would be significantly smaller without the involvement of the world’s largest economy.
The 11 countries represent roughly 13.5 percent of the global economy, according to the World Bank.
The ministers have tasked their trade officials to present the assessment to their leaders when they meet for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November, which will also include Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, making his international debut since taking office a week ago, defended Trump’s decision to pull out of the TPP.
“We expect to engage with members here in many cases on bilateral basis,” he told reporters.