This has to be,.. scratch that,… ‘THIS IS’ one of the biggest multinational trade embarrassments in the past decade.

President Trump and team U.S.A. have already said the United States is not engaging in the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP). We’re out, and have been out since the 2016 election. [The U.S. is focusing on direct, one-one-one, bilateral trade agreements.]

However, for the backdrop of this latest TPP development, you might also remember USTR Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Ross expressed the NAFTA plans were at loggerheads, and cancelled the October round of NAFA discussion, because of the ridiculous positions of the Canadians led by Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s far-left Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Well, for several months the eleven nations within the TPP have been negotiating among themselves for the details of the agreement without the United States. The member nations in the TPP-11 group are: Australia, Japan, Brunei, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.

All eleven trade ministers from the TPP-11 countries had finally agreed on a “substantial conclusion” to the deal. The framework was built over almost two years and it was to be signed off by leaders on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam today.

Only two days ago Canada’s Minister Chrystia Freeland was harping on the value of the multilateral trade agreement and telling the world how important it was that Canada and the TPP partners had agreed to terms for this historic agreement.

Everything was in place. The deal was complete and all that was left was signatures from the leaders of the eleven nations.

The signing of the agreement was to take place today, and all of the heads of the eleven states showed up for the grand signing ceremony… well, except Justin from Canada and Minister Chrystia Freeland:

VIETNAM – Canada has blown a trade pact with Australia and nine other nations out of the water after snubbing a leader’s meeting and making a raft of last minute demands.

All 11 trade ministers from the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries including Canada had agreed on a “substantial conclusion” to the deal. It was to be signed off by leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam on Friday evening. But the resurrected trade deal — championed by Malcolm Turnbull — is now in limbo after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised a raft of last minute issues and stood up a meeting of the 10 other leaders including Mr Turnbull. After hopes of announcing a breakthrough for the TPP11, following a decision by the eleven countries’ trade ministers to reach a “substantial conclusion”, the trade partnership was not finalised. Moves by the Turnbull government to champion the deal and seal a free-trade agreement with Peru at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Da Nang were in stark contrast to the US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on trade. In a fiery speech to the conference, Mr Trump vowed to take action against China’s “chronic trade abuses” where he declared a new “Indo-Pacific dream” of “fair and reciprocal” trade at a speech at the summit. Trade ministers from the eleven countries reached an the agreement early on Friday but it required sign-off from their nation’s leaders. Asked if every leader was waiting and Canada did not show up, Mr Ciobo said: “correct”. “It’s less than ideal to have every leader and trade minister from the other ten countries sitting around the table and not have Canada there. It’s not an ideal outcome,” he said. “There is of course still opportunity for us to continue discussions to try to work our way through the last remaining issues Canada raised,” Mr Ciobo said. “But at this point in time it would appear, at the request of Canada, we’ve been unable to have leaders achieve a resolution today.” A source close to the negotiations said there were “a lot of very angry people, a lot of very pissed off leaders” at the meeting. “The Canadians screwed everybody,” they said.

Australia’s Minister for Trade Steven Ciobo and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at APEC talks.

The Australian side are understood to be angered over the development, which was seen as deeply embarrassing for Vietnam as the host country. The TPP11 leaders, all seated around a table, were left fuming after Canada failed to attend and were told the nation had asked for last minute exemptions to the deal.

Lead negotiators Japan and Australia were attempting to get Vietnam and Canada over the line to seal the TPP11 deal by agreeing to resolve a handful of contentious issues. (read more)

This is an epic embarrassment for the host nation Vietnam put upon them by Chrystia Freeland and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.