Japanese officials have expressed a willingness to negotiate re-entry of the U.S. into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the White House said Tuesday.
“There are discussions and considerations,” newly-appointed National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow told reporters in Palm Beach, Fla., ahead of President Trump’s two-day summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Trump and Abe are slated to discuss the current multilateral trade agreement, which the president pulled out of just days after taking office, over a series of meetings at Mar-a-Lago. They are also expected to talk about Japan’s interests prior to Trump’s sit-down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
According to Kudlow, the president is still dissatisfied with the current TPP agreement and would need to see concrete changes made before any action is taken to re-join the trade deal as its twelfth member.
“The president has said many times he greatly prefers bilaterals to multilaterals,” Kudlow said. “I can’t say what we’ll do. It’s way too early.”
But Kudlow said Trump would “like to see a free trade agreement” come to fruition at some point, whether it’s a revised TPP or bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Japan.
Trump tasked Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer earlier this month with reviewing the possibility of rejoining TPP, a decision that came a surprise to allies of the White House.
The president has frequently railed against the multi-country agreement, once calling it a “rape of our country” at a campaign rally during his presidential bid.
