INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
United States President Donald Trump said the United States would only join the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade pact
his administration walked away from last year, if it offered "substantially better" terms than those provided under previous
negotiations.His comments, made on Twitter late Thursday, came only hours after he had unexpectedly indicated the United States might rejoin
the Trans Pacific Partnership
Trump had told Republican senators earlier in the day that he had asked United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House
economic adviser Larry Kudlow to re-open negotiations.In his Twitter post, which came during Asian trading hours, Trump said the United
States would "only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres
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!Policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday responded to Trump's initial announcement
about the possibility of the United States rejoining the trade deal with scepticism."If it's true, I would welcome it," Japanese Finance
Minister Taro Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Friday and before Trump's tweet
Aso added that the facts needed to be verified.Trump "is a person who could change temperamentally, so he may say something different the
next day", Aso said.New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also flagged challenges to the Untied States rejoining the pact."If the United
States, it turns out, do genuinely wish to rejoin, that triggers a whole new process," she told reporters in Auckland.The TPP, which now
comprises 11 nations, was designed to cut trade barriers in some of the fastest-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region and to counter
China's rising economic and diplomatic clout
Trump pulled the United States out of the pact in early 2017, citing concerns about United States jobs.Even before Trump's official
withdrawal last year, United States participation in the pact was seen as increasingly unlikely due to opposition in the United States
Congress.The United States entered TPP negotiations in 2008
In 2016, then President Barack Obama's administration abandoned attempts to push the pact through Congress.The other 11 countries forged
ahead with their own agreement without United States participation, and in the process eliminated chapters on investment, government
procurement and intellectual property that were key planks of Washington's demands.The pact includes Mexico and Canada, which are in the
process of renegotiating the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.A Canadian government official said on
Thursday there had not been any formal outreach from the United States about the pact.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Trump
Japan, a close United States ally, is a member of the TPP.Trump's election campaign in 2016 opposed multilateral trade pacts and argued
bilateral deals offered better terms for United States businesses and workers.But Trump is struggling to get support from other countries
for his recent threat to impose import tariffs on China and the United States farm lobby is arguing that retaliation by China would hit
