TOKYO: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak views the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact as a strategic free-trade agreement that should come into force, and hoped the new Unites States administration would not abandon it.
Najib said the remaining 11 of the 12 TPP members, as well as Corporate America, would continue to lobby US president-elect Donald Trump to embrace the TPP.
For now, the world is keeping a wait-and-see attitude on how Trump would dictate US foreign and trade policies, he said.
“What he said when he was running for office might not be the same as what he decides when he is office,” Najib told Malaysian reporters here.
“The weight of being the President of the United States and leader of the free world, so to speak, will count very significantly and will play in his mind as opposed to when he was running for office.
“We have to give him time to reflect as to what will be the policies of his new administration.”
Najib said any stance towards trade protectionism would harm trade and the global economy.
Najib said he has good relations with President Barack Obama and his administration and that Malaysia would now have to work with Trump to strengthen bilateral ties.