CANBERRA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Australia will work with the remaining Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations and look to other nations to salvage what it can of the doomed free trade agreement after U.S. President Donald Trump's overnight decision to withdraw from the deal, Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said.
Following Trump's decision to axe America's involvement, effectively leaving the deal in its current form 'dead in the water', Ciobo has already said other nations which were a part of the original deal had opened up discussion lines about a potential replacement, as the Trump decision was "not unexpected".
"We are not going to walk away from pursuing high quality trade deals that are good for Australian exports," Ciobo told Sky News on Tuesday.
He said there was a possibility that a "TPP 12 minus one" deal, which would involve the remaining 11 signatories, could get off the ground as the Australian government had been in close contact with representatives from the original TPP nations.
"A number of us had a conversation about a possible 'TPP 12 minus one' in other words, the Trans-Pacific Partnership minus the United States in order to keep hold of the gains we've been able to agree (upon)," Ciobo told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.
"I've had conversations with Canada, Japan, Mexico, with New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. I know there have been conversations with Chie and Peru.
"There are quite a number of countries that have an interest in looking to see if we could make a 'TPP 12 minus one'."
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