US 'wrong' to ditch TPP, Pyne says

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has pointedly criticised the United States over its withdrawal from a Pacific trade deal.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne

Federal minister Christopher Pyne has criticised the US for ditching the Trans-Pacific Partnership. (AAP)

A senior federal minister has criticised the United States for ditching the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne says the Pacific trade pact was still a "live option" for Australia and US President Donald Trump was wrong to withdraw.

"I think it's the wrong move for the United States because open markets are exactly what the world needs in terms of growing jobs and investment and growth in our economy," Mr Pyne told Adelaide radio 5AA on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Labor has seized on reports Japan had rejected the Turnbull government's decision to press on with the TPP.

"Without the US, the TPP pact is meaningless, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly said," deputy cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda remarked, according to the English-language Japan Times.

Opposition trade spokesman Jason Clare said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had been publicly humiliated by the US and Japan.

"And he only has himself to blame," he said.


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Published 25 January 2017 12:32pm
Source: AAP


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