Pacific nations get framework to salvage trade deal US quit

Bloomberg

A blockbuster Pacific trade pact abandoned by US President Donald Trump has edged closer to becoming reality after days of tense talks in Vietnam.
Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership had secured a framework agreement on how to salvage the deal. Canada, which had held out for a day on signing onto the agreement, said it had won some desired concessions while warning that work is needed to reach a full deal. Motegi spoke to reporters in Danang, after ministers held another meeting and confirmed the content of the broad agreement, which includes sections to be suspended after the US withdrawal earlier this year.
“We reconfirmed the agreement from yesterday, including all the details of the wording used,” Motegi said. “There’s no mistake,” he said, referring to initial claims from Japan on Thursday night that a deal had been struck that were disputed by other countries, causing confusion. No changes were made to the text, he said.
Canada’s Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne defended the delay, saying he had refused to be rushed into an agreement on what he now called the Comprehensive Progressive TPP. The frictions in talks — which saw the chief Vietnamese trade negotiator walk out in frustration — had raised concerns the deal, which took years to negotiate, might collapse entirely.
“What we’ve been able to achieve is to preserve market access in Japan, we’ve been able to improve the progressive elements and we’ve also been able to suspend key sections like intellectual property which our Canadian stakeholders thought would have an impact on innovation,” Champagne said late on Friday in an interview in Vietnam.
“We did what’s right for Canadians,” he said. “This was never about this Friday, this was about the next decade, this is about shaping the terms of trade in Asia-Pacific region.” Champagne cautioned there was months of work ahead to bring TPP to completion. “We made progress, but we clearly identified the things we still need to work on,” he said.
“We have a framework that has been established, so in the sense that we know the elements that people wanted to preserve,” Champagne said. “We’ve also identified a number of work programs, including from the Canadian side, the one on cultural diversity. That means over the next six to eight months we need to work on that.”
The TPP, which would have covered 40 percent of the global economy, was thrown into disarray when Trump withdrew the US in one of his first acts as president due to a perceived risk to American jobs, leaving other countries scrambling to keep the deal alive. The TPP discussions in Vietnam centered around suspending some parts of the agreement in a bid to move forward without America’s involvement. The TPP was seen as a hallmark of US engagement with Asia under the prior administration and a buffer against China’s rising clout. Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter called it more strategically important than having another aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific. It would go beyond traditional deals by including issues like intellectual property, state-owned enterprises and labor rights.
“The 11 countries completely share the view that bringing the agreement into force as quickly as possible is important to help persuade the US to return to it,” Motegi told reporters at a joint briefing on Saturday with Vietnamese Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh.