kuala lumpur<u+2014>malaysia said it would deepen trade ties with china and other countries after donald trump <u+2019>s election in the u.s. likely torpedoed plans for an american-led free trade accord with washington<u+2019>s chief asia allies. malaysia appeared to be the first asian country to shift its focus toward a proposed china-led trade group rather than the 12-nation trans-pacific partnership agreement (tpp), which the obama administration freighted with strategic significance as a counterweight to china<u+2019>s rise. during the campaign, mr. trump outlined a more isolationist and protectionist vision for the u.s. malaysia<u+2019>s trade minister said his government would focus its hopes on the regional comprehensive economic partnership, a group led by china. the minister, mustapa mohamed, said tpp members would discuss the status of that accord next week during a summit of asia-pacific leaders in lima, peru, the first one since mr. trump<u+2019>s election. <u+201c>we hope to get more clarity when we meet next week,<u+201d> mr. mustapa said. republican and democratic leaders in congress told the white house they won<u+2019>t advance the tpp in the election<u+2019>s aftermath , and obama administration officials acknowledged it has no way forward now. china said it would seek support for the beijing-led free-trade area in the asia-pacific during the peru summit. china isn<u+2019>t part of the tpp. president barack obama is scheduled to attend the summit. japan, a tpp member, will consider the possibility of renegotiating the tpp without the u.s., a top japanese official said this week. he said the accord was a more comprehensive one than the rcep because it included such principles as intellectual property protection. but prime minister shinzo abe said on monday that he still believed the tpp had a chance. japanese officials say they will try to make the case for it to the trump administration. the tpp, which member governments agreed to in atlanta last year , requires ratification of at least six countries, accounting for 85% of the total gross domestic product of the member 12 countries, to come into force. the u.s alone constitutes about 60% of that. the obama administration has warned that failure of the tpp, which had underpinned the u.s. <u+201c>pivot<u+201d> to asia, could result in china winning trade advantages at the expense of the u.s. <u+2014>peter landers in tokyo contributed to this article.
asia trade focus shifts from u.s. to china-led accord - wsj
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