Why Tokyo is moving to revive TPP even without the US

New York

PRESIDENT Donald Trump spiked US participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - a massive free trade pact five years in the making among countries representing 40 per cent of the world's economy - during his first days in office. But now Japan wants to bring the trade pact back from the dead, even if it means leaving Washington behind.

Japanese trade officials told the Financial Times over the weekend that Tokyo is ready to carry TPP forward in essentially the same form it was in when Mr Trump killed it. "We will start talks on an 11-member TPP, minus the US, at the (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in May," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said at a recent event in New York.