The Pacific Partnership countries have agreed on moves to move ahead with the trade deal despite Canada's resistance during talks in Vietnam, which have raised new doubts about the pact's survival, officials said.
According to a draft of the final statement seen by Reuters and expected to be published on Saturday, the 11 countries agreed on the basic elements of an agreement, but more work remains.
The move ahead of the PTA will push forward multilateral trade agreements after US President Donald Trump abandoned it earlier this year in favor of the First America policy reaffirmed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam.
The draft said that the ministers agreed on the key elements of what they described as a comprehensive and advanced partnership agreement across the Pacific and noted that a limited set of items of the original agreement would be suspended.
There is a need for more technical work in areas that still need consensus to prepare a final text for signing, she said, but did not say when that could be done.
We agreed on a framework towards agreement with programs of action to deal with issues, a Canadian official said.
The talks went into chaos on Friday after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe canceled a meeting of leaders from the Pacific Partnership countries after his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, did not attend.
Canadian Trade Minister Francois Philippe blamed Trudeau's lack of misunderstanding about the scale, but said more work was needed to move the partnership across the Pacific Ocean forward, citing in particular the automobile sector and cultural protection.
DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) -
