What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership and why did Donald Trump withdraw from the trade deal?
The TPP, signed by 12 countries last February, covers 40 per cent of the world's economy
DURING his presidential campaign Donald Trump declared that pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be one of the first things he would do if he took office.
On January 23 he was as good as his word and signed an executive order which withdrew the US from the world's largest free trade agreement.
Here we examine the TPP and look at why Trump decided to to pull the US out of it.
What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
The TPP was designed to be a trade agreement between 12 of the Pacific Rim countries.
Now that the US has pulled out those remaining are Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.
When the US was included the nations made up 40 per cent of the world's economy.
The deal was signed in February in New Zealand after seven years of negotiations.
It would create a trade environment similar to that of the EU's single market.
It would aim to "promote economic growth, support the creation and retention of jobs, enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness, raise living standards, reduce poverty in the signatories' countries, and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labour and environmental protections".
US President Barack Obama signed the agreement after years of negotiations.
The partnership was shrouded in controversy from opponents as the agreements and negotiations were conducted with secrecy - fairly normal for trade agreements.
Asian leaders have been scrambling to save the trade pact, but Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that: "TPP without the United States would be meaningless."
Why did Donald Trump withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Donald Trump signed an order pulling the United States out of the TPP on January 23.
He had railed against the trade agreement as a key part of his campaign message that globalisation was costing Americans jobs.
As he signed the executive order he said: "We've been talking about this for a long time.
"It's a great thing for the American worker."
Trump campaigned on an anti-establishment platform that reached out to American workers who feel they have been "forgotten" in the post-industrial age.
In the 1970s US industry began moving jobs abroad at a cost to the nation's industrial workers.
Many people in the US feel free trade has brought about the death of much of America's factory and manufacturing jobs.
Pulling the US out of the TPP was part of Trump's wider pledge to put "America first" and secure US jobs by focusing less on trading with other countries.
On his first day in office Trump told manufacturers he would impose a "very major" border tax on companies that moved operations abroad.
He vowed to cut business taxes to less than 20 per cent, down from 35 per cent, and to slash at least 75 per cent of government regulations to encourage firms to build in America.
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