Trade Ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries signed a sweeping free trade agreement on Thursday, 8th March 2018, to streamline trade and slash tariffs just hours before President Donald Trump announced his plans to impose new tariffs on aluminum and steel to protect U.S. producers.
The US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) last year, causing fears that it would not prosper without its most influential country. But the remaining 11 members pressed ahead, saying they were showing resolve against protectionism through global trade.The Ministers dropped key provisions that the US had required on protection of intellectual property, among others. The renegotiated pact signed in Chile’s capital was also renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
“Despite the diverse and difficult challenges, the CPTPP is a historic achievement that creates free and fair 21st century rules in the Asia-Pacific region,” Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said at a news conference after the signing.
The CPTPP that covers 500 million people includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which together account for 13 percent of the global economy. Its success highlights the isolation of the U.S. under Trump’s protectionist rhetoric on trade and his “America first” philosophy.
“It leaves the US at a disadvantage from both a trade and a broader strategic perspective,” said Joshua Meltzer, senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution. “It is now a trade bloc that discriminates against the U.S.” Meltzer said the United States’ ability to shape the rules of trade in the Asia-Pacific region “is very much diminished.”
The US, originally the biggest TPP economy, was one of the trade deal’s strongest supporters before Trump took office. Trump has said he prefers country-to-country deals and is seeking to renegotiate several major trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement that includes the US, Mexico and Canada.
This is “a strong sign against the protectionist pressures, and in favor of a world open to free trade, without unilateral sanctions and the threat of trade wars,” Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz said.
The EU threat and Trump’s impending announcement on the tariffs were expected to escalate the risk of a trade war, in which nations try to punish each other by hiking taxes on traded goods. Experts say that tends to harm both exporting nations as well as importing countries’ consumers, who face higher costs. The EU considers itself to be caught in the crossfire of a trade dispute, in which Trump has mainly singled out China for being unfair in its commercial deals.
The original TPP was conceived by the U.S. as a counterweight to China’s growing economic influence through a robust trading bloc that excluded the Asian giant. The thinking was that China would have an incentive to open its market and liberalize its policies in an effort to eventually qualify for TPP membership.
/Time 08-03-2018
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