Source: POLITICO'S MORNIING AGRICULTURE, 11/13/17

The 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Saturday took a big step toward putting the agreement in place without the United States. But in the words of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "There's still more important work to be done."

Led by Japan, the TPP-11 trade ministers issued a joint statement on Saturday outlining their plan for bringing the deal into force under the new name of "Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership." That includes a list of 20 provisions that would be "suspended" now that the United States is no longer part of the pact. Notably, no agricultural commitment appears on the list.

But the documents also referred to four more issues that must be resolved before countries are ready to sign the revised accord. Those include an issue on state-owned enterprises related to Malaysia; a commitment on coal affecting Brunei; a dispute settlement provision involving trade sanctions connected with Vietnam; and a cultural exception issue related to Canada.

"We got a lot of work done and there's a lot of progress made but there is more work to do, and that was my message," Trudeau told reporters in Da Nang, Vietnam, where he and other leaders were attending the annual APEC summit. "Our goal is to reach a progressive agreement with our partners that benefits all our citizens and that is in line with our values." 

Back home, Sen. Ron Wyden, top Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a blistering statement that accused the Trump administration of "dithering" the year away, instead of developing "a serious strategy" to open markets in Asia to increased exports of U.S. goods and services.

"Because of this failure to effectively engage, farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and service providers will lose business in the Asia Pacific markets compared to their competitors in countries like Canada and Mexico," Wyden said. "I fear that these eleven nations moving forward without the United States will create an incentive for American manufacturers to move production to Mexico in order to access consumers in the Asia-Pacific, such as those in Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam."