Trans Pacific Partnership bad deal for US: Donald Trump

Donald Trump says he does not like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, declaring it would be a bad deal for the United States.

Donald and Melania Trump, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago. Picture; AP.

UPDATE: Donald Trump says he does not like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, declaring it would be a bad deal for the United States.

The President said he was dubious about joining the vast trade pact despite reports he wanted reopen negotiations to join it.

“While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad (World Trade Organisation) is to US.”

While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

Earlier, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow played down America’s interest in rejoining the TPP, saying it is “more of a thought than a policy.”

Although Mr Kudlow did not rule out the US rejoining the 11-nation free trade pact, he said he did not believe the Mr Trump was yet convinced by the idea.

“It has to be in US interest for us to take another look and actually go into it,” he said during a press conference ahead of Mr Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida.

“In policy content terms, it’s never been to our liking. So if we choose to go down that path — and that decision has not been made, I want to just be very clear. If we choose to go down that path, however, to “improve it,” we will have to be convinced that it’s worth our while. And I don’t think the President is yet convinced of that, to be honest. I don’t think he is.”

Mr Trump last week ordered Mr Kudlow and his special trade representative Robert Lightizer to examine whether the US should rejoin the TPP which it pulled out of early last year.

“Look, the TPP thing — I don’t want to say you’re barking up the wrong tree; you’re not,” Mr Kudlow told reporters. ”I’m just saying, at the moment, we are in the pre-preliminary stages of any discussion at all.”

“For the American side, at the moment, it’s more of a thought than a policy, that’s for sure.”

Mr Kudlow said the question of the US joining the TPP was in no way connected to the current trade disputes with China.

The TPP has often been portrayed as a means of further containing China’s economic influence in the region and it was speculated that this had helped rekindle Mr Trump’s interest in it.

“I think that our disagreements with China stand alone,” Mr Kudlow said. “We don’t need TPP; we don’t need anything. There’s trade disputes going on here that stand on their own regarding us and China. We don’t need TPP to do any of that stuff.”

On the TPP, Mr Kudlow said: “The President believes it is not presently in U.S. interest to sign it. And that’s not a new point. he’s made that before.”

“You know, the President said a number of times he greatly prefers bilaterals to multilaterals. That’s his comfort zone, his preference.”

Mr Trump tweeted last week: “Would only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have bilateral deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!”

On the weekend, Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said there was little appetite among the TPP’s 11 signatory nations for wholesale rewriting of the trade pact to accommodate the US.

“We have now got an agreement between the 11 countries that are in the TPP, now I cannot see any appetite, and I know I have had these conversations with my colleagues, I cannot see any appetite for any kind of wholesale renegotiation of the TPP deal to accommodate the United States,” Mr Ciobo told Sky News on Sunday.

“Now don’t get me wrong, that isn’t saying we don’t want the Americans back in, we do. But what I am saying is I can’t see us picking all the stitching that brought this deal together to accommodate the US at this point.”

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia