Singapore would sign TPP minus the US if there's consensus: PM

Singapore

THE United States may have officially withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but there is talk that the 11 other countries involved - Singapore included - could still go ahead with the free-trade pact without the world's largest economy.

Singapore would sign on to such a deal, but only if there is a consensus reached among the remaining nations, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an interview on BBC.

He was unsure, however, whether this version of the TPP would happen, given that Japan - which has the largest economy among the remaining 11 TPP members - had made "very painful" concessions in certain areas in exchange for concessions from the US.

"If you have a deal in which the Japanese have these concessions and the Americans are not a party, I think the political balance and economic balance have shifted. So I would not rule it out, but I think it's not so eas…