Will he or won't he? Trump talks TPP in latest tweet

President Donald Trump has suggested he may flip flop on his initial TPP trade position. Photo / AP

US President Donald Trump says the US will only join the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade deal his administration walked away from last year, if it offers "substantially better" terms than under previous negotiations.

His comments on Twitter late on Thursday came only hours after he unexpectedly indicated the US might rejoin the landmark pact, and amid heightened volatility in financial markets as Washington locked horns with China in a bitter trade dispute.

Trump had told Republican senators earlier in the day he had asked US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow to re-open negotiations.

In his Twitter post Trump said the US would "only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!"

Policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday responded to the possibility of the US rejoining the TPP with scepticism.

"If it's true, I would welcome it," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters before Trump's tweet. Aso added that the facts needed to be verified.

Trump "is a person who could change temperamentally, so he may say something different the next day", Aso said. Japan's Trade Minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, warned it would be difficult to renegotiate, saying the TPP was a well-balanced agreement based on the varying interests of the signatory nations.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it would be "great" to have the US back in the pact though doubted it would happen.

"We're certainly not counting on it," Turnbull told reporters.

Would only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, noting the progress made by the 11 countries after Trump abandoned the deal, also flagged challenges to the US rejoining the pact.

"If the United States, it turns out, do genuinely wish to rejoin, that triggers a whole new process," she told reporters in Auckland.

"There would be another process and so, at this stage we are talking hypotheticals."

The TPP, which now comprises 11 nations, was designed to cut trade barriers in some of the fastest-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region and to counter China's rising economic and diplomatic clout.

Trump criticised the TPP as a "horrible deal" and pulled the US out of the pact in early 2017, saying bilateral deals offered better terms for US businesses and workers.

Trade experts believe Trump is probably trying to placate his political base in the wake of criticism over the US-China tariff standoff.

- AP