Advertisement
Britain, New Zealand would consider altering trade partnership to entice US to join: top negotiators
- Terms of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, whose precursor Donald Trump ditched, could be revisited
- New Zealand official describes US absence as ‘source of immense regret’ and says bloc continues ‘updating and upgrading’ deal
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
5
Britain and New Zealand would consider altering the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to entice the US to join, its chief trade negotiators said on Wednesday.
Asked whether New Zealand, the trade bloc’s current chair, would be open to changing labour and “rules of origin” commitments in the CPTPP if the US were interested in joining, its deputy trade and economic secretary Vangelis Vitalis said: “We’re in an ongoing process of updating and upgrading the existing agreement”.
“If the United States was to find a way to become an aspirant to submit an application, that would certainly be one of the conversations,” he added.
Vitalis, speaking at an event hosted by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, also said it was a “source of immense regret” to see the US not be a part of the bloc.
The CPTPP rose from the ashes of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-member alliance Donald Trump withdrew the US from on his first full day as president in 2017.
Bochen joined the Post as a Washington-based correspondent in 2022 after several years working in the US, China, Myanmar and Thailand. She holds degrees from Duke University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Robert Delaney is the Post’s North America bureau chief. He spent 11 years in China as a language student and correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires and Bloomberg, and continued covering the country as a correspondent and an academic after leaving. His debut novel, The Wounded Muse, draws on actual events that played out in Beijing while he lived there.
Advertisement