Tokyo — Eleven countries aiming to forge an Asia-Pacific trade pact after the US pulled out of an earlier version will sign an agreement in Chile in March, Japan’s economy minister said on Tuesday, in a big win for Tokyo. Trade officials had been meeting in Tokyo to resolve rifts including Canada’s insistence on protections for its cultural industries such as movies, TV and music. An agreement is a win for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, which has been lobbying hard to save the pact, originally called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In one of his first acts as US president in January 2017, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the original 12-nation treaty. Abe has painted the deal as a spur to growth and reform in Japan and a symbol of commitment to free and multilateral trade at a time when Trump stresses "America First" policies. A Canadian government source confirmed Ottawa would sign on to the deal, saying it had "secured real gains". These included cultural protect...
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