It's time for a TPP acronym reboot: Trumped Pacific Partnership is a far more appropriate name than Trans-Pacific Partnership as the 11 remaining members pick up the pieces.
Donald Trump's first act as U.S. president was pulling out of the TPP pact that predecessor Barack Obama spent years negotiating. It was a stinging blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spent a ton of political capital rallying his Liberal Democratic Party behind the TPP, only to then call it "meaningless" without the United States. Even so, he is wisely leading the charge to resurrect the pact, and one thing he could do this week to make it all the more meaningful: pull South Korea and Indonesia into the tent.
Sure, Abe should try to woo China to fill some of the massive output void. But even if China were interested — a huge if — such an overture might enrage his buddy Trump. So why not grow the TPP pie more safely and methodically by adding North Asia's third-biggest economy and the largest in Southeast Asia, to the tune of $2.4 trillion annual output?
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