The Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is still alive, despite Trump's U.S. withdrawal

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, frustrated in Hanoi
(Image credit: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images)

On Sunday, at the end of an economic meeting of Asian and Pacific countries, the 11 nations remaining in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact agreed to continue working to implement the agreement, despite President Trump pulling the U.S. out in January. New Zealand's trade representative, Todd McClay, headed the TPP meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, and suggested the U.S. would be welcome to rejoin the TPP if political winds shift; other nations might be invited to join "if they can meet the high standards in the TPP agreement," too, he added

New Zealand and Japan are the only signatories that have ratified TPP, and Japan is the largest economy still in the bloc. The other nine countries are Australia, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.