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Washington /Â AFP
Donald Trump said the United States would signal its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact on his first day in the White House, one of six immediate steps aimed at “putting America first.”
The Republican billionaire—who for 10 days has been sounding out cabinet picks at his Trump Tower offices in New York—made the pledge in a short video message.
The 70-year-old property tycoon outlined a list of priorities for his first 100 days and executive actions to be taken “on day one” —on half a dozen issues from trade to immigration, national security and ethics—in a push to “reform Washington and rebuild our middle class.”
“My agenda will be based on a simple core principle: putting America first,” said the president-elect, whose campaign tapped the anger of working-class Americans who feel left behind by globalization. It singled out trade deals such as the TPP as key culprits.
“On trade, I am going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country,” said Trump, who takes office January 20.
“Instead, we will negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores,” he said.
Both the 12-nation TPP—signed in February but not yet in force—and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement featured heavily in the brutal White House race. Trump said they harmed the US economy and jobs and many see his victory as a repudiation of ever-deeper commercial ties.
Six priorities
Trump’s populist election platform called for scuttling the TPP—President Barack Obama’s signature trade initiative which still needs approval from the Republican-dominated Congress—as well as for renegotiating NAFTA.
Asian leaders have been scrambling to save the trade pact.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that “TPP without the United States would be meaningless.”
The Japanese leader told reporters in Buenos Aires that the 12 TPP leaders who met in Lima on Saturday did not discuss putting the deal into effect without the US.
Matthias Helble, a research economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, said Trump’s announcement that bilateral trade deals would replace TPP “comes at a high cost.” “The outcome of ten years of hard-fought negotiations has been jettisoned,” Helble said.
“The only glimmer of hope is that Trump is not fully abandoning the idea of trade opening.”
Trump backs Nigel Farage as British ambassador to USÂ
Washington /Â AFP
Donald Trump has tweeted that Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage “would do a great job” as British ambassador to the US, in the latest unorthodox intervention by the president-elect.
The decision on who is appointed to represent the United Kingdom in Washington is a matter for the British government, but that did not stop the controversial property mogul turned world leader from weighing in on social media. “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States,” Trump said on his Twitter account. “He would do a great job!” Farage, interim leader of the nationalist UK Independence Party which campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union, met recently with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York.
The British politician said he was flattered by Trump’s tweet.
“I’m very flattered by the comments,” Farage told Britain’s Press Association. “I have said since I met the president-elect that I would like to do anything I can to act in a positive way to help relationships between our two countries.”