When Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign pledge to walk away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other regional economies, it was seen by many as portending the end of US leadership on trade in Asia-Pacific. But do not tell that to Wilbur Ross.
“I don’t buy that at all,” says Mr Ross, the billionaire investor tapped by Mr Trump to steer trade policy from his perch as commerce secretary. Critics say the US ceded its regional leadership role to China by abandoning TPP, which was the economic linchpin of Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia. But Mr Ross, who has done business for decades in Japan and other parts of Asia, dismissed the idea that China could take the lead.
“China has been very clever in the way they have been trying to capitalise on this so-called vacuum,” Mr Ross tells the FT. “Given how protectionist China is, the day when China really has a meaningful free-trade agreement with another big country I’ll be quite amazed.”