The Australian government will push ahead for a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal without the United States and is open to Indonesia, China and others seeking to join the agreement.

The Australian trade minister, Steven Ciobo, made the call for countries to push ahead with a so-called TPP 12-minus-one agreement now that the US president, Donald Trump, has signed an order that the US will not join the deal.

On Monday evening, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, reportedly confirmed Australia’s commitment to the TPP in a phone conversation with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

At a media conference on Tuesday, Turnbull said there was no question that the US pulling out was a “big loss” for the TPP. Asked if TPP countries should push for China to join, Turnbull said there was “potential” for it do so.

“It is possible that US policy could change over time on this, as it has done on other trade deals,” he said, noting that Congress and the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, were in favour of the TPP.

“There is also the opportunity for the TPP to proceed without the United States.”

On Tuesday Ciobo told ABC’s AM that a TPP with the US “can’t go ahead unless the US was to change its mind” but Japan, Australia and others wanted to hold on to the gains negotiated so far under the deal.

He said Australia had had talks with Canada, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Chile and Peru to salvage the deal without US involvement.

Asked about China joining in the US’s stead, Ciobo said the original architecture enabled other countries to join.

“Certainly I know Indonesia has expressed a possible interest and there would be scope for China, if we’re able to reformulate it, to be a TPP 12 minus one [country] ... [and] for countries like Indonesia or China, or indeed other countries, to consider joining.”

Ciobo said there were a number of “competing factors” that would complicate a TPP 12-minus-one agreement, including that Mexico and Canada may first have to deal with Trump attempting to renegotiate the North American free trade agreement.

“It’s a moving space but it’s an important space – we must continue to pursue giving Aussie exporters the best chance, to get preferential access for Australian exports.”

Ciobo confirmed the Australian government had not done modelling about the possible size of benefits under a TPP 12-minus-one agreement, because it had been a “hypothetical” until Trump signed the order.

He said the agreement was good for Australia because it improved access to markets including Canada and Mexico and lowered compliance costs.

Asked whether the Turnbull government would push for parliament to ratify the TPP despite the US withdrawal, Ciobo said it would “keep that option alive”.

“We’re not going to be like [opposition leader] Bill Shorten and the Labor party and walk away from this deal because it requires a little bit of elbow grease.”

Labor supports the TPP in principle but has said it is pointless to consider it in parliament given the US’s withdrawal. It has come under pressure from its union backers to reject the deal outright.

According to the final chapter of the TPP, the trade agreement can go ahead only if at least six of its 12 original members have ratified the agreement, and if those six countries represent 85% of the combined GDP of all 12 countries.

It means the deal cannot come into force if the US or Japan fails to ratify the agreement because, between them, they represent 79% of the GDP of all 12 original signatories. Without the US or Japan involved there is no way for the remaining signatories to fulfil the 85% requirement.

On Tuesday Labor’s trade spokesman, Jason Clare, said Trump’s executive order “put the final nail in the coffin of the TPP”, declaring the deal “officially dead”.

In a statement Clare said the US decision “makes a mockery of all the nonsense we’ve heard from Malcolm Turnbull last week that he can change Donald Trump’s mind and that this legislation would help”.



Clare did not appear to put much stock in the possibility of a TPP 12-minus-one agreement, warning the TPP would “have no effect at all” without the US.

“It’s over. Donald Trump has killed the TPP. It’s time for Malcolm Turnbull to wake up and move on, and develop a real economic plan for Australia.”



Ciobo said the Coalition would not walk away from “high-quality trade deals” and accused Labor of poor economic leadership.