Duterte slams TPP, backs Trump plan to dump trade deal

Duterte slams TPP, backs Trump plan to dump trade deal

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday condemned the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the signature trade initiative of outgoing US President Barack Obama, saying that the trade deal would lead to more regional problems.

 In his words before leaving for Cambodia at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Duterte expressed support to United States President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to retract from the deal on the first day of his presidency, calling the TPP an “American idea” that “will not benefit the Philippines.”

 “Mabuti na lang hindi tinuloy ni Obama kasi napaka-mali na policy ‘yan (It’s good that Obama didn’t continue that policy because it’s very wrong)… I’m glad that Trump said he will throw to the garbage can ‘yung TPP because it will create more problems for us here in Asia,” said President Duterte.

 Duterte said the deal would be at the expense of cheap quality medicine. “Kung pumasok tayo at nagkamali tayo (If we enter into it and make a mistake), we won’t be able to sell medicine na hindi branded,” he said.

The TPP is a business agreement among 12 countries in the Pacific– Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.