'No appetite' for major Trans-Pacific Partnership changes to accommodate US: Australia
By AFP | Published: 15th April 2018 10:25 AM |
Last Updated: 15th April 2018 10:25 AM | A+A A- |
In this Jan. 23, 2017, photo, Vice President Mike Pence, left, and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus watch as President Donald Trump shows off an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact agreed to under the Obama administration in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. | AP
SYDNEY: There is "no appetite" among the Trans-Pacific Partnership signatories for major renegotiations to accommodate the US, Australia said today after President Donald Trump indicated he was considering rejoining the pact.
Trump said on Thursday the US could re-enter the TPP if it could get a "better" deal, a major U-turn after leaving the Pacific trade pact last year and calling it a jobs killer.
But Australia's Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said he "can't see any appetite for any kind of wholesale renegotiations of the TPP deal to accommodate the United States".
"Now don't get me wrong, that's not saying we don't want the Americans back in, we do," Ciobo told Sky News Australia.
"But what I am saying is I can't see us unpicking all the stitching that brought this deal together to accommodate the US at this point.
" Eleven Asia-Pacific nations signed a slimmed-down version of the trade agreement, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), in March.
Apart from Australia, the pact also includes Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, representing together 13.5 per cent of the global economy.
The 11 states form a market of 500 million people.
The deal was signed just before Trump slapped steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, and also before tit-for-tat warnings between the US and China over imposing levies on each other's goods.
