WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have reached a consensus to move ahead with a major trade deal without the United States, as the world's largest economy seeks to go it alone under President Donald Trump's 'America First' policy.
It comes hours after President Trump made it clear that the U.S. will not seek multilateral free trade deals. Instead, he prefers mutually beneficial bilateral pacts.
Trump withdrew America from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the landmark trade accord negotiated by the Obama administration, on his third day in office.
In a joint statement Saturday, trade ministers from the remaining 11 Asia-Pacific countries -- dubbed the TPP-11 -- said they had 'agreed on the core elements' of a deal at the sidelines of the APEC summit in the Vietnamese city of Danang, after days of stalled talks raised fears it could collapse altogether.
Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada's trade minister, described the breakthrough in a tweet as 'big progress'.
Canada had held out to maintain environmental and labour protections linked to freer markets in the deal.
Those elements were thrown into jeopardy by America's sudden withdrawal from the deal earlier this year, which forced the remaining countries to reconsider the merits of a pact suddenly shorn of access to the world's largest economy.
China is not included in the TPP, a deal initially driven through by the former US administration as a counterweight to surging Chinese power in Asia.
Today, Trump and Xi will join leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region for closed door summit talks, including Russia's Vladimir Putin, Japan's Shinzo Abe and Canada's Justin Trudeau.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX