The President formally withdrew the United States from the TPP on January 23.
Because the United States represents over 60% of the combined GDP of the original 12 countries, without U.S. participation the agreement cannot enter into force.
The TPP was the largest regional trade accord in history and would have set new terms for trade and business investment among the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, representing 40 percent of global GDP and one-third of world trade. Six (6) countries have existing Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the United States (i.e., Singapore, Chile, Australia, Peru, Mexico, and Canada) and, five (5) have no FTA (i.e., Japan, Brunei, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Malaysia).
The President has expressed his preference for bilateral free trade agreements.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the President affirmed in a quick, 18-minute news conference following their January 27 meeting that the US and the UK would immediately begin negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.
Reportedly Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also will discuss a bilateral trade agreement with the President when they meet in February.
US withdrawal from the TPP provides new impetus to negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The RCEP has been under negotiation since 2013 among the ten (10) member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and India, China, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
For more information on the Presidential Administration’s potential impact to international trade click here.
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