The White House is looking to create deals with many of the nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the pact the president withdrew from.
WASHINGTON — Fresh off securing trade agreements with South Korea, Canada and Mexico, President Trump is embarking on a new plan: refashioning the Trans-Pacific Partnership to his liking through a flurry of bilateral trade deals.
Mr. Trump, who pulled the United States out of the trade pact with 11 other countries that he has called a “rape of our country,” is now looking to forge deeper trade ties with several of the nations in the alliance, as well as the European Union and the United Kingdom.
But while the Trans-Pacific Partnership was aimed at encouraging China to make the extensive economic and structural overhauls that would someday win it a place in the trade pact, Mr. Trump views these new bilateral agreements as a way to contain Beijing’s growing economic, geopolitical and territorial ambitions.
The White House gave formal notification to Congress this week that it would begin trade talks with Japan, the European Union and the United Kingdom. And the administration also has its sights on free trade agreements with the Philippines and Vietnam, as part of its effort to fence in China with agreements in its backyard.
The effort comes amid rising economic and national security tension between the United States and China and before a potential meeting in November between Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. The administration has already imposed three rounds of tariffs on a total of $250 billion a year worth of Chinese goods in an intellectual property dispute; imposed additional tariffs on Chinese steel, aluminum and washing machines; tightened national security restrictions on Chinese investment in sensitive sectors of the American economy; and stepped up foreign aid with a goal of offsetting China’s rising influence in the developing world.
China is racing ahead with its own plan for somewhat more free trade in Asia through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would sharply reduce tariffs on trade within Asia, tying Asian markets more closely to China. The Chinese-backed pact is taking shape as a fairly narrow trade agreement, however. Unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the bilateral free trade agreements envisioned by the Trump administration, it would not impose minimum labor standards or restrictions on state-owned enterprises.
The Trump administration views the labor, manufacturing and other concessions it won in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, as a template for future trade deals, particularly with Asia.
Among the most important provisions the White House wants to replicate in future deals is imposing limits on the ability of trading partners to strike separate deals with China. The new pact with Mexico and Canada severely limits their ability to reach separate free-trade deals with a nonmarket economy — a provision clearly aimed at Beijing. Negotiating similar language in agreements with China’s neighbors could pose a particular challenge to Beijing’s efforts to more closely tie itself to other Asian nations.
Earlier this month, an official with the Chinese Embassy in Canada called the provision “dishonest behavior” that undermines national sovereignty.
The administration also wants to bake in the potential to renegotiate trade deals more frequently so the United States can ensure trade terms remain in its favor.
