Eleven nations signed a slimmed-down version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, moving to lower tariffs just as US President Donald Trump seeks to raise them after withdrawing from the deal, according to a report from The Star Online.
The foreign ministers of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam officially created what is now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a market representing half a billion people and 13.5 percent of the global economy.
The CPTPP will reduce tariffs in countries that together amount to more than 13% of the global economy - a total of US $10 trillion.
With the United States, it would have represented 40%.
Even without the United States, the deal will span a market of nearly 500 million people, making it one of the globe’s three largest trade agreements, according to Chilean and Canadian trade statistics.
The original 12-member agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was thrown into limbo early last year when Trump withdrew from the deal just three days after his inauguration in a bid to protect U.S. jobs.
The 11 remaining nations, led by Japan and Canada, finalized a revised trade pact in January. It will enter force when at least six member nations have completed domestic procedures to ratify the agreement.
The final version of the agreement was released in New Zealand on Feb. 21.
