No one is sure what President-elect Donald Trump will do to simultaneously boost the American economy and the country's standing abroad, but one of his apparent moves will be to cancel the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In the wake of Trump's election, that proposed free-trade bloc — which would include 12 countries accounting for more than a third of global trade — has been more or less pronounced dead. Although extensive analysis on the terms of the deal had concluded that any of its economic benefits would likely be meager, proponents of the deal had insisted it was a key component of the American geopolitical "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region.

A copy of the local Chinese magazine Global People with a cover story that translates to 'Why did Trump win' is seen with a front cover portrait of US president-elect Donald Trump at a news stand in Shanghai on November 14, 2016. Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images

In other words, the TPP would have allowed the U.S. to further define labor, environmental and copyright rules of the global economy, and demonstrated the country's resolve and commitment to cooperation in a strategically important region. A failure to ratify the deal, the thinking goes, would therefore see China benefit at America's expense. That reasoning has become commonly accepted in D.C. policy circles, and President Barack Obama himself argued the point in a May op-ed in The Washington Post. "Increasing trade in this area of the world would be a boon to American businesses and American workers, and it would give us a leg up on our economic competitors, including one we hear a lot about on the campaign trail these days: China," the president wrote. "The world has changed. The rules are changing with it. The United States, not countries like China, should write them," Obama added. That sentiment was mirrored earlier this week by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who heads the second-largest economy in the would-be bloc, when he warned that a Beijing-backed deal could rise to the region's political forefront. "There's no doubt that there would be a pivot to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership if the TPP doesn't go forward," Abe told lawmakers on Tuesday, according to The Japan Times. "RCEP doesn't include the United States, leaving China the economy with the largest gross domestic product."

But these warnings may not be accurate, according to geopolitical and trade experts.