Singapore Warns U.S. Credibility on Line Over Trade Pact
- Prime Minister Lee says TPP vital to U.S. engagement with Asia
- Lee is on state visit to U.S., will meet Obama in DC
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Lee Hsien Loong in Washington, DC on Aug. 1.
Photographer: Yuri Gripas/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
U.S. credibility is on the line over a Pacific trade pact that faces a tough approval process in Congress, Singapore’s Prime Minister said Monday, warning about risks to the U.S.’s reputation in Asia if the deal falls through.
As well as being an “economic game-changer,” the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, which does not include China, could “add substance to America’s engagement in the Asia Pacific” region, Lee Hsien Loong said in a speech in Washington D.C. The pact has been signed by the 12 member nations but is yet to be ratified by most of them.