The president of the California Farm Bureau says he’s optimistic President-elect Donald Trump will see the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a good deal despite campaigning against it, reports Capital Public Radio in Sacramento. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is to meet Trump on Thursday, says there will be an Asian pivot to a Chinese-led trade pact that would exclude the United States if TPP founders. China was not part of the TPP.
Trump says he will withdraw from the 12-nation TPP free trade agreement, move to renegotiate NAFTA, affecting Mexico and Canada, and put high tariffs on Chinese-made imports during his first days in office. China, Canada, Mexico and Japan are four of the five largest markets for U.S. farm exports.
California Farm Bureau president Paul Wenger says he expects the incoming Trump administration will take a good look at TPP. “And if he’s such a good businessman, he will see this was a good deal,” Wenger told Capital Public Radio. Economist Dan Sumner of UC-Davis said if Trump renegotiates TPP, “he may well be instrumental in getting such a thing through Congress.”
Japan is pursuing ratification of TPP notwithstanding the potential withdrawal of the United States. The pact cannot take effect if both of its biggest signatories, the United States and Japan, reject it. The Kyodo news service reported Abe has said he will explain to Trump his “thoughts on the importance of free trade.” The lower chamber of Japan’s parliament approved TPP last week. “There’s no doubt that there would be a pivot to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) if the TPP doesn’t go forward,” Abe said, referring to a trade pact that would involve China, Japan and 12 other Asian nations plus Australia and New Zealand.
TPP includes the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.