Canada, China to attend summit on free trade after TPP collapse

Canada and China are joining a mid-March summit hosted by Chile on how to advance trade in Asia-Pacific now that Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ceded leadership in the region.

It’s the first effort to move beyond the rubble of the TPP deal – dead since Washington’s exit – and offers a possible way for Beijing to take the lead on influencing how trade should deepen between the West and Asia.

Chilean officials say they have invited all 12 countries that participated in the TPP talks as well as South Korea and China, which did not.

...so far, eight countries have agreed to attend the March 14-15 meeting in Vina del Mar, Chile, including China, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and New Zealand.

“The objective of this summit is to have an open-ended discussion about the different trade initiatives in the wider Asia-Pacific region … and to define the contributions of our countries to the architecture of the 21th century international trading system,” envoy Alejandro Marisio said...

The TPP deal had been promoted by the Obama administration as a counterweight to Chinese influence in Asia by enshrining North American-style rules for trade and intellectual property protection in the region...

In January, a senior Chinese diplomat, Zhang Jun, told journalists that Beijing will be forced to assume a world leadership role if others step back from that position. This statement came after Mr. Trump pledged to put “America first” in his inaugural address....

This was excerpted from 9 February 2017 edition of The Globe and Mail.