Australia has vowed to persist with a trans-Pacific trade deal despite US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the process, which threatens to derail a key plank of the Coalition's economic plan.
While the Turnbull government appears to be walking away from plans to win next month what would be a largely symbolic vote for the 12-nation deal when parliament returns, it insists many countries are working towards an alternative.
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said a lot of countries had a clear interest in looking to see if a "TPP 12 minus one" could be made to work.
"Australia and quite a number of the other TPP countries are very focused on making sure we still capture the gains that were agreed to under the TPP," Mr Ciobo told Sky TV.
"It will mean some reformulation and some discussion in relation to that but we are not as a coalition government going to walk away from the opportunity to continue growing Australian exports and to continue creating job opportunities for Australians into the future."
Mr Trump's decision not only removes the single largest member of the 12-nation block, which accounts for around 40 per cent of global trade, it also may prompt other members to withdraw because their support for the TPP is based on onerous requirements imposed by the US, including the right of American countries to sue.
Keeping those features in place without access to the world's biggest market will be particularly problematic for countries such as Vietnam, which currently have no existing trade agreements with the US.
In Australia's case, two-way trade with the US stands at around $58 billion a year - a figure that accounts for 26 per cent of the $223 billion in trade Australia conducts across the entire 12-member TPP group.
Japan, with $72 billion in trade, remains the biggest TPP partner for Australian exporters and consumers.
Opposition trade spokesman Jason Clare said Malcolm Turnbull's credibility was in little better shape than the "dead" TPP, with the prime minister declaring the deal was pivotal to his economic plan.
"It's over. Donald Trump has killed the TPP," Mr Clare said in a statement.
"It's time for Malcolm Turnbull to wake up and move on, and develop a real economic plan for Australia."
The Prime Minister's office has indicated that Mr Turnbull discussed the trade deal with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Monday night.
Mr Turnbull noted Japan's ratification of the TPP - the only country so far to do so - and underlined his desire to consider options to progress the agreement, his office said.
Both leaders agreed the deal was in the interests of both the Australian and Japanese people.
Mr Ciobo vowed he would not "walk away from pursuing high-quality trade deals".
"I just want to take this chance to reinforce how poor the leadership is from the opposition that they would break what has been effectively a bipartisan consensus for decades that has in many respects underpinned Australia's economic growth.
"It just reinforces that the Labor Party is too beholden to the Australian union movement to of course oppose these big trade deals including China, which has underpinned our growth now for quite some time."
