Peru president proposes new Asia-Pacific deal after US exit TPP

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Tuesday proposed the creation of a trade bloc between member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and other nations.

Kuczynski made the proposal a day after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), dealing a blow to the trade deal negotiated between 12 Asian Pacific countries, including Peru.

"We should work with China, Asian countries, India, Australia, New Zealand ... and create the APEC-Pacific group reaching as far as India," Kuczynski said in an interview with local radio station Radio Programas del Peru (RPP).

He said to create the new trade bloc, parties should salvage the better points of the TPP and abandon some of the deal's more controversial clauses.

"We are going to take the best of the TPP and leave out the not-so-good things of the TPP, such as the additional five years of testing for medicines, which added up to 10 years of testing, which is too long," said Kuczynski.

In contrast to the protectionist ideology Trump has brought to the White House, Peru will pursue greater economic opening, he said.

"I am in favor of free trade, because it benefits Peru," said the president.

APEC promotes free trade among 21 Pacific Rim economies, including China, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Peru. Endit