Andrew V. Pestano
Asia-Pacific trade ministers on Sunday settled to move forward with
the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement despite U.S. President
Donald Trump abandoning the deal.
The ministers from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico,
New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam met as part of a
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, event.
After Trump
scrapped the deal in January, Australian Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull suggested
China could be a replacement.
Todd McClay, New Zealand's trade
minister, said he and his counterparts "underlined their vision for the
TPP to expand to include other economies that can accept the high
standards of the TPP."
"The ministers reaffirmed the balanced outcome and the strategic and
economic significance of the TPP highlighting its principles and high
standards as a way to promote regional economic integration, contribute
positively to the economic growth prospects of its member countries, and
create new opportunities for workers, families, farmers, businesses and
consumers," McClay
said in a statement.
McClay said enacting the TPP would "address our concern about
protectionism, contribute to maintaining open markets, strengthening the
rules-based international trading system, increasing world trade, and
raising living standards."
The TPP, which would have connected 40 percent of the global economy,
took nearly eight years of negotiations. Though an agreement was
reached in October 2015, the deal was not approved by U.S. Congress, so
it never took effect.
Despite the lack of U.S. support, the TPP effort is revived.
"The ministers agreed on the value of realizing the TPP's benefits
and to that end, they agreed to launch a process to assess options to
bring the comprehensive, high quality agreement into force
expeditiously, including how to facilitate membership for the original
signatories," McClay added.
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