MOSCOW (Sputnik) – He added that leaders of the TPP member states reaffirmed their commitment to the treaty during their meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima.
"[The US withdrawal] destroys the basic balance of gains," Abe said on Monday at a press conference in Argentina’s Buenos Aires, as cited by the Financial Times newspaper.
On Monday, US President-elect Donald Trump said that his transition team was working on steps that would be made on the first day of his presidency, including a notice the United States would leave TPP.
The TPP seeks to remove barriers to trade among its 12 signatories, which together account for 40 percent of the world's economy: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
During his presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly criticized the TPP and expressed the desire to shift the focus from the global trade to national economic development in order to support the US economy.
