The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement involving the United States and 11 other countries should be considered "dead," the head of the US military's Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, said Tuesday.
Harris emphasized, however, that the trade deal's demise does not spell the end of regional military-to-military interaction. He said the United States would "figure out a way" to pursue those aspects of the TPP that are important.
"TPP is a trade issue that had some interest for those of us in uniform, the cybersecurity aspects of it, maybe the intellectual property aspects, and things like that," Harris told a conference sponsored by the publication Defense One.
"I’ve been a supporter of TPP, but TPP, as far as I can tell, is dead."
The commander pointed out that the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, both opposed the deal.
The TPP seeks to remove barriers to trade among its 12 signatories, which together account for 40 percent of the world's economy: the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Republican leaders in Congress have said in the week since the US presidential election on November 8 that they won't be scheduling a vote on the TPP this year. A vote is unlikely once lawmakers reconvene in early 2017, due to the opposition of Trump, who takes office as president on January 20.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201611151047474308-tpp-death-ties-military/
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