Kerry defends trade pact on last trip as top US diplomat
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Secretary of State John Kerry, making his last trip as the top U.S. diplomat, defended the 12-nation trade pact that the incoming administration said it would scrap and urged countries to refrain from provocative acts in the South China Sea.
“I can’t predict what the new administration is absolutely going to do with the trade, but I can absolutely tell you that the fundamental reasons for the TPP haven’t changed,” Kerry told students of University of Technology and Education in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, referring to the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement.
He said the U.S cannot grow unless it’s able to sell goods to the rest of the world.
Kerry admitted that the future of the TPP, the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, is in doubt when Donald Trump is sworn in as president next week. He, however, believed that U.S commitments to the region will not change.