Trans-Pacific Partnership proceeds without the United States

Vietnam&#039;s Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh (L) shakes hands with Japan&#039;s Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi (R) at the end of a Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) press conference — (Image credit: Anthony Wallace/Getty Images)

"Ministers are pleased to announce that they have agreed on the core elements of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)," said a Friday statement from the 11 nations participating in the trade deal.

The United States was originally the 12th signatory to the TPP in 2016, but President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement, which he once called "a rape of our country," immediately after taking office. On Thursday, Trump complained at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where the TPP announcement also took place, that "while we lowered market barriers, other countries didn't open their markets to us."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.