GIVEN his dour attitude toward the United States since taking office, President Rodrigo Duterte’s preference for joining the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) rather than the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not at all surprising. But even if it were not at least partly inspired by political leanings, it is the more practical course the Philippines could take in terms of trade and economic relationships.

The US president-elect Donald Trump has several times – most recently on Monday – vowed to withdraw the United States’ participation in the TPP, but even before Trump’s election campaign began to attract serious attention, there were clear signs that the sweeping trade pact championed by President Barack Obama was probably not going to be accepted by the Americans themselves. Several key members of both political parties in the US Congress publicly disagreed with it. Former Secretary of State and President Obama’s candidate against Trump, Hillary Clinton, was also lukewarm to the TPP.

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