US and Asia Pacific Rim nations plan trade pact

THE US and eight other Pacific Rim nations aim to forge a free-trade pact before President Barack Obama hosts an APEC summit in Hawaii in a year, Chile’s president said yesterday.

Leaders of the nine nations met for the first time yesterday at a summit in Japan to discuss the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact which would oblige members to scrap tariffs and other trade barriers.

The group did not include China which favours negotiating trade reforms in alternative forums that include only Asian economies and not the US.