WELLINGTON/TOKYO: Australia and New Zealand said on Tuesday they hope to salvage the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by encouraging China and other Asian countries to join the trade pact after US President Donald Trump kept a promise to abandon the accord.
The TPP, which the US had signed but not ratified, was a pillar of former US President Barack Obama’s policy to pivot to Asia.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted it as an engine of economic reform, as well as a counter-weight to a rising China, which is not a TPP member.
Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Monday pulling the US out of the 2015 TPP agreement and distancing America from its Asian allies.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had held discussions with Abe, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong overnight about the possibility of proceeding without the US.
“Losing the United States from the TPP is a big loss, there is no question about that,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. “But we are not about to walk away ... certainly there is potential for China to join the TPP.”
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not say directly whether China would be interested in joining the TPP but that at a time of economic uncertainly the Asia-Pacific should make its own contributions to growth with openness.
“We think that in the present situation, no matter what happens, all should keep going down the path of open, inclusive, continuous development, seeking cooperation and win-win,” Hua told a daily news briefing.
Obama had framed the TPP without China in an effort to write Asia’s trade rules before Beijing could, establishing US economic leadership in the region as part of his “pivot to Asia.”
China has proposed a counter pact, the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) and has championed the Southeast Asian-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Hua said efforts on FTAAP should be stepped up, adding China hoped talks on RCEP could be concluded at an early date.
New Zealand’s English said the US was ceding influence to China and the region’s focus could switch to alternative trade deals.
“We’ve got this RCEP agreement with Southeast Asia, which up until now has been on a bit of a slow burn, but we might find the political will for that to pick up if TPP isn’t going to proceed,” English said.
Malaysia’s trade minister said negotiators from the remaining TPP countries would be in “constant communication” to decide the best way forward.
“Notwithstanding the current position of the new US administration on (TPP), we will continue to engage with our American colleagues to strengthen our bilateral trade and economic relations, given the US’s importance as our third-largest trading partner and a major source of investment,” Mustapa Mohamed said in a statement.
TPP withdrawal ‘unfortunate:’
FedEx CEO
FedEx Corp’s chief executive officer said on Tuesday that Trump should reconsider his positions on international trade and work to embrace China and its vast market.
CEO Fred Smith, in separate media appearances on Tuesday, questioned Trump’s decision to withdraw from the TPP. The package and business services company employs thousands of people whose jobs depend on international trade.
“The United States being cut off from trade would be like trying to breathe without oxygen,” Smith said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Smith argued that some 40 million Americans have jobs as a result of trade, whose benefits are more “diffuse” and harder to see than the “pain” in areas like manufacturing.
“It’s an essential part of our economy. I think the decision to pull out of TPP is unfortunate because the real beneficiary of that is China. And China has been very mercantilist, very protectionist ... We need to try to stop those things and get the Chinese to open up their 1.3 billion person market, not cut them off. We have the opportunity to sell huge amounts of goods into China.”
The TPP, which the US had signed but not ratified, was a pillar of former US President Barack Obama’s policy to pivot to Asia.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted it as an engine of economic reform, as well as a counter-weight to a rising China, which is not a TPP member.
Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Monday pulling the US out of the 2015 TPP agreement and distancing America from its Asian allies.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had held discussions with Abe, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong overnight about the possibility of proceeding without the US.
“Losing the United States from the TPP is a big loss, there is no question about that,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. “But we are not about to walk away ... certainly there is potential for China to join the TPP.”
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not say directly whether China would be interested in joining the TPP but that at a time of economic uncertainly the Asia-Pacific should make its own contributions to growth with openness.
“We think that in the present situation, no matter what happens, all should keep going down the path of open, inclusive, continuous development, seeking cooperation and win-win,” Hua told a daily news briefing.
Obama had framed the TPP without China in an effort to write Asia’s trade rules before Beijing could, establishing US economic leadership in the region as part of his “pivot to Asia.”
China has proposed a counter pact, the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) and has championed the Southeast Asian-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Hua said efforts on FTAAP should be stepped up, adding China hoped talks on RCEP could be concluded at an early date.
New Zealand’s English said the US was ceding influence to China and the region’s focus could switch to alternative trade deals.
“We’ve got this RCEP agreement with Southeast Asia, which up until now has been on a bit of a slow burn, but we might find the political will for that to pick up if TPP isn’t going to proceed,” English said.
Malaysia’s trade minister said negotiators from the remaining TPP countries would be in “constant communication” to decide the best way forward.
“Notwithstanding the current position of the new US administration on (TPP), we will continue to engage with our American colleagues to strengthen our bilateral trade and economic relations, given the US’s importance as our third-largest trading partner and a major source of investment,” Mustapa Mohamed said in a statement.
TPP withdrawal ‘unfortunate:’
FedEx CEO
FedEx Corp’s chief executive officer said on Tuesday that Trump should reconsider his positions on international trade and work to embrace China and its vast market.
CEO Fred Smith, in separate media appearances on Tuesday, questioned Trump’s decision to withdraw from the TPP. The package and business services company employs thousands of people whose jobs depend on international trade.
“The United States being cut off from trade would be like trying to breathe without oxygen,” Smith said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Smith argued that some 40 million Americans have jobs as a result of trade, whose benefits are more “diffuse” and harder to see than the “pain” in areas like manufacturing.
“It’s an essential part of our economy. I think the decision to pull out of TPP is unfortunate because the real beneficiary of that is China. And China has been very mercantilist, very protectionist ... We need to try to stop those things and get the Chinese to open up their 1.3 billion person market, not cut them off. We have the opportunity to sell huge amounts of goods into China.”
