The Pacific

A Japanese flag flies in Yokohama as cargo ships come into port. Access to Japanese markets was one of the incentives for the US to stay in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

The US has long had a powerful military and economic presence in the Pacific, and Obama had hoped to create even closer ties between the US and east Asia through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The controversial agreement was also seen as an effort to counter expanding Chinese trade power in the region.

In one of his first moves in office, though, Trump decided to pull the US out of the agreement. In response, the remaining 11 countries that signed onto the TPP formed their own pact without the US earlier this month, cutting the US out of potentially profitable export opportunities and diminishing its influence along the crucial Pacific Rim.

"It's a huge setback for the United States," Deborah Elms, the executive director of the Asian Trade Center, told Voice of America. "If you are an exporter this is deeply damaging."

US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank Robert Orr agreed.

"When Trump abdicated TPP and then told regional nations to go on their own as the US would, it was inevitable that a new formulation of TPP would emerge not only without American leadership, but also without even an American presence," he said.