Countries that signed TPP could focus on China-led agreement: Froman

The 12-nation free trade deal will be in the spotlight of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru that brings together leaders of 21 nations.

Meanwhile the state-owned China Daily has said president-elect Donald Trump should consider supporting the Beijing-backed free trade deal in the Asia-Pacific as an alternative to the doomed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

New Zealand exported $8.4 billion of goods and services to the USA in 2015 and it is the biggest market for meat through long-standing World Trade Organisation agreements.

“I strongly oppose TPP as drafted and will work hard to develop trade agreements that are in the national interest and benefit American workers including our farmers”, the now President-elect told the US Farm Bureau during the campaign.

In her first public comments since Donald Trump’s surprise election win, President Barack Obama’s top foreign policy adviser told AFP the weight of the presidency would likely temper Trump’s stance.

No matter what strategic intentions there were behind Obama’s TPP campaign, the trend of globalization will not change and any attempt to contain China will be no avail. Earlier this week the Global Times warned Mr Trump against starting a trade war with China by declaring the country a currency manipulator.

Trump also announced plans to remove all undocumented immigrants from the US and suspend immigration from “terror-prone regions”.

The partner nations are New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

He may impose punitive tariffs on powerful trade partners such as China and revise key free trade deals with countries such as Mexico that rely on the United States market, the Institute of International Finance said. Proposed dates for an agreement have come and gone, but an RCEP deal could be reached as soon as next year.

Trump’s upset in last week’s election has created an opening for China to extend its already massive economic clout in the Pacific Rim, a region hungry for free trade deals.

“This is because of Australia’s FTA with Japan which entered into force past year gives them an increasing tariff advantage over NZ beef exports”, he said. “Put your whole global operations here to take advantage of the place that is still open for business”.

Trump, who triumphed in last week’s United States presidential vote, successfully tapped the anger of working-class voters who feel left behind by globalisation, vowing to protect American jobs against cheap labour in countries like China and Mexico.

The Australian government’s chief negotiator said that no policy would need to be changed despite Australia’s laws on intellectual property in terms of safe harbour provisions being at odds with the global agreement, however.

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