Steven Mnuchin admits the Trump administration is considering rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership

President Trump once called the Trans-Pacific Partnership "a rape of our country," but his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, claimed Tuesday that he has had "very high-level discussions" about rejoining the sweeping free-trade agreement, Inside Trade reports. "I think the president is looking out for the interests of U.S. companies and is willing to negotiate multilaterals or consider going back into TPP," Mnuchin said, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce's "Invest in America" summit. "That’s on the table."

The United States was originally the 12th signatory to the TPP in 2016, but Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement immediately after taking office. The 11 remaining countries, including Canada and Japan, later agreed to go ahead with the pact anyway.

Mnuchin emphasized that rejoining the TPP is "not a priority we have at the moment, but it is something the president will consider." Trump told CNBC in January that he would "do TPP if we were able to make a substantially better deal. The deal was terrible, the way it was structured was terrible. If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP."

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