By Dave Sherwood
SANTIAGO, March 8 (Reuters) - Eleven countries are expectedto sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement in Santiago onThursday, as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist bentof the United States, which last year pulled out of the pact.
The signing ceremony comes the day after Europe and theInternational Monetary Fund urged U.S. President Donald Trump tostep back from the brink of a trade war sparked by plans to slapduties on steel and aluminum imports. Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will reduce tariffs incountries that together amount to more than 13 percent of theglobal economy - a total of $10 trillion. With the UnitedStates, it would have represented 40 percent.
Even without the United States, the deal will span a marketof nearly 500 million people, making it one of the globe's threelargest trade agreements, according to Chilean and Canadiantrade statistics.
The original 12-member agreement, known as the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP), was thrown into limbo early last year whenTrump withdrew from the deal just three days after hisinauguration in a bid to protect U.S. jobs.
The 11 remaining nations, led by Japan and Canada, finalizeda revised trade pact in January.
Trump has also threatened to dump the North American FreeTrade Agreement unless the other two members of the pact, Canadaand Mexico, agree to provisions that Trump says would boost U.S.manufacturing and employment. He argues that the 1994 accord hascaused the migration of jobs and factories southward tolower-cost Mexico.
The revised agreement, to be signed at 3 p.m. (1800 GMT)Thursday, eliminates some requirements of the original TPPdemanded by U.S. negotiators. Those include rules ramping upintellectual property protection of pharmaceuticals, whichgovernments and activists of other member nations worried wouldraise the costs of medicine.
The final version of the agreement was released in NewZealand on Feb. 21.
In January, Trump told the World Economic Forum inSwitzerland that it was possible Washington might return to thepact if it got a better deal. However, New Zealand's trademinister said that was unlikely in the near term, while Japanhas said altering the agreement now would be very difficult.
The 11 member countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada,Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore andVietnam.