New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has proposed that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) should be renamed the Trump Pacific Partnership to bring US President-elect Donald Trump onboard.
Key joked about renaming it the Trump Pacific Partnership while speaking on a trade panel at a summit of CEOs at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) talks in Peru, reports the nzherald. Co.nz.
The APEC Summit yesterday was the first time the TPP leaders had been together since Trump's unexpected win in the US elections.
Key said that Trump, who during his election campaign had promised to scrap the TPP and called it threat for jobs and American manufacturing, could be talked around as he a business brain and would eventually see the benefits of the free trade deal.
"We might have to be a little bit creative to work out how to get the US there," he said.
On the sidelines of the Summit, Key also met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US President Barack Obama, Canadian President Justin Trudeau , Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Key also spoke to China's President Xi Jinping, who has been promoting the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as an alternative to TPP.
Key urged the other leaders to hold their nerve on free trade and expressed concern that the US would lose influence to China if it withdrew from the deal.
He later pointed to trade and climate change as areas China could be seen to be offering stronger leadership than the USA if Trump put his campaign promises into practice.
He said the US was an important partner in the region but China would fill the void if a Trump administration backed away from free trade.
Key said none of the members have indicated that they would pull out of the agreement if the US withdrew and Mexico and Japan still intended to pass the legislation need to implement it domestically by the end of the year.
"Every country has gone through a lot to get to this point. Every political leader somewhere along the line has burnt a bit of political capital and called in some favours to get TPP there," he said.
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