Trump must seize last chance to seal TPP deal, says former top US diplomat
A former top US diplomat to China has called on US president-elect Donald Trump to press on with Washington’s “pivot to Asia” and to seize the “last chance” to pass a Pacific trade pact that Trump has vowed to scrap.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday with the South China Morning Post, former commerce secretary and US ambassador to Beijing Gary Locke urged Trump to make the Trans-Pacific Partnership a reality.
While the next US leader had still to detail his administration’s priorities on foreign policy and form his own cabinet, Locke said it was crucial for Trump to surround himself with “solid, knowledgeable” advisers on US-China issues and to have “accurate information in front of him before he speaks and acts”.
I think he needs to make sure he has a balance of different viewpoints giving him advice
Locke, who was the US ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014, refused to give his opinions on individuals apparently in contention for prominent positions in a Trump administration but said: “It’s still too early to tell, but some of it is rather surprising.”
“I’m going to be very concerned about who he surrounds himself [with] in total,” Locke said.“And I think he needs to make sure he has a balance of different viewpoints giving him advice ... So let’s see who the final people are. And let’s see the spectrum of people that he puts together.”
Former top US envoy to China Gary Locke on Trump, trade and strategic mistrust
Locke is now a senior adviser and consultant for Davis Wright Tremaine, a business and litigation law firm in Seattle, advising domestic and international clients on doing business in China and the US.
