WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has asked his trade advisers to look at re-joining the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade pact he withdrew the United States from early last year, Republican Senators said after a meeting with Trump on Thursday.
The TPP is aimed at cutting trade barriers in some of the fastest-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region. It was thrown into limbo early last year when Trump quashed it, citing concerns about protecting U.S. jobs.
It was dead on arrival in the U.S. Congress in any case. The United States entered the TPP negotiations in 2008 and it took until late 2016 for the then-Obama administration to abandon its attempt to push the pact through Congress.
"It is good news that today the President directed Larry Kudlow and Ambassador (Robert) Lighthizer to negotiate U.S. entry into TPP,” Ben Sasse, a pro-trade Republican, said in a statement after the meeting.
Since the U.S. withdrew from the TPP talks, the other 11 countries have forged ahead with their own agreement, and in the process cut chapters on investment, government procurement and intellectual property that were a key plank of Washington's demands.
The pact includes Mexico and Canada which are renegotiating with the United States the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump has frequently talked tough on trade. His most recent push has been to order tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and he has threatened to impose duties on imports from China, triggering fears of a global trade war.