Trade pact TPP further without US

tokio - Eleven countries around the Pacific will sign the new TPP free trade agreement in March without the United States. Washington stepped out of the treaty a year ago.

Japan has made efforts to save the agreement. The new TPP will be signed by the participants with a ceremony in March in Chile; Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The agreement has a very difficult history. Negotiations started as early as 2005, but there was a lot of delay due to disputes about, among other things, agriculture and intellectual property. It was finally signed in February 2016 by the participants in New Zealand. But the largest partner, the US, withdrew as early as January 23, 2017, under President Trump's leadership, as a result of Trump's objections to a series of free trade agreements.