Trade ministers and representatives attend a meeting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Singapore. The countries represented included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the United States, Vietnam and Singapore.
The trade deal once touted as a hallmark of U.S. efforts to check China's rise has at last crossed the finish line — without its one-time leader. On March 8, the 11 remaining members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the rebranded and scaled back version of TPP , signed the deal in Chile. This deal has brought to fruition a decadelong process that saw the United States first try to build a regional trade architecture excluding China then abruptly abandon it under U.S. President Donald Trump. Since that time, Japan — China's main regional rival — has championed the bill, persevering despite repeated setbacks . Though sweeping in scope, the resurrected CPTPP is a remnant of what it was originally intended to be.
