President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans for his first day in office in a clip on YouTube, which takes aim at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal signed by 12 countries just last year.
The deal between the US, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico, among others, was only signed in 2015, but is yet to be ratified by each signatory. Together, the 12 nations account for more than 40% of the global economy, but it is one of many such trade deals that Donald Trump took exception to while campaigning to become president.
Should he follow through with these plans, the boost ports and shipping lines would have received from the increase in tariff-free trade may no longer become a reality.
Mr Trump claims in the video he will ‘issue a notification of intent to withdraw from the TPP’, instead brokering ‘fair bilateral trade agreements which bring jobs and industry back on to American shores’.
Critics of the TPP claim it was negotiated to give advantage to big business without any transparency.
While the other 11 nations still wish to ratify the trade agreement, with US involvement, it could become a non-starter.
This latest announcement adds weight to many analysts' predictions that Trump is likely to damage world trade, at least in the short term.
