Australia yesterday declared the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) not dead ahead of key trade talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sydney today, despite opposition to the trade pact from US president-elect Donald Trump.
The talks between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Abe also come amid heightened regional tension as China asserts its claims over the disputed South China Sea, setting up a potential clash with the incoming Trump administration.
“Talk of the TPP being dead is premature. We need to give the Americans time to work through this issue,” Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Steven Ciobo told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
The 12-member TPP, which aims to cut trade barriers in some of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, but does not include China, cannot take effect without the US.
The deal, which has been five years in the making, requires ratification by at least six countries accounting for 85 percent of the combined GDP of the member nations.
Given the sheer size of the US economy, the deal cannot go ahead without US participation.
US President Barack Obama has said not moving forward with the TPP would undermine the US’ position in the Asia-Pacific.
Ciobo said that if the TPP was rejected, Australia would seek free-trade agreements with individual Asian nations.
“We will certainly continue to look for trade opportunities. Australia is a trading nation,” he said.
Japan is the only signatory to have ratified the TPP, which has a two-year timetable for all members to sign into law.
Besides trade, Turnbull and Abe are expected to discuss regional security, with tensions rising as China flexes its territorial claim in the South China Sea and Trump and his incoming administration challenging Beijing.
China’s recent naval exercises in the disputed seaway and the building of islands there, with military assets, has unnerved its neighbors.
Beijing claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also have claims to most or parts of the region.
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