Article content continued

Agreement on the 12-nation TPP was reached in October while Canada was in the midst of an election campaign. It was former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative, who agreed to the pact before Trudeau’s Liberals won a majority on Oct. 19.

Speaking later Thursday at a media briefing, Trudeau repeated that Canada has not yet decided whether to sign the pact and it must first be reviewed in parliament.

“Canada is resolutely pro trade, we understand how important trade is for economic growth,” he said. “That is the lens through which we will examine the TPP.”

“One of the commitments that I made was indeed we were going to have a proper consultative process during the ratification process that included parliamentarians, and I am of course committed to that.”

The TPP has a long road generally to be enacted as it requires legislative approval by all member nations. The pact — which covers about 40 percent of the global economy — goes beyond normal trade deals to include issues like intellectual property and state-owned enterprises. It does not currently include China.

‘Major Focus’

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, Obama’s negotiator in the TPP talks, said that the pact was “a major focus of the last couple days” of the TPP countries participating in the APEC meeting and there was a strong commitment from leaders to get it ratified.

“It was a really strong collective expression of political will to get it done and get it done as soon as possible,” Froman said. “We’re talking with Congress about how to move it forward, the most appropriate time given their schedule. And as the president has said, we want to seek approval as soon as we can next year.”

With files from Toluse Olorunnipa and Angela Greiling Keane.