TPP negotiations continue without USThe meeting, to run for at least two days, follows their trade ministers' meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Vietnam in May, where they agreed to launch a process to assess options to bring the TPP into force expeditiously. Japan, the largest economy among the 11, hopes to reach an agreement to bring the TPP into effect, as it took years of negotiations before it was signed in February 2016. The Japanese minister said that Japan wants to move forward discussions toward the early implementation of the TPP, including how to bring the United States back. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the country's pullout from the TPP soon after he took office in January, saying the multilateral pact hurts American jobs and that he prefers bilateral trade negotiations. The TPP was signed by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, covering around 40 percent of the global economy.

Source: VietNamNet News July 12, 2017 09:45 UTC