Australia's Trade Minister says a version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) '12 minus one' could still be an option for the remaining countries wishing to ratify a deal.
With US President Donald Trump officially pulling the USA out of the 12-country agreement, Steve Ciobo said the agreement represented some significant gains, and a number of countries still supported the deal.
Mr Ciobo told AM on Tuesday morning he had held conversations with officials in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as saying he knew separate talks had taken place with Chile and Peru.
"Ultimately though there are a number of competing factors in the international trade space like there always is."
Mr Ciobo said the TPP was designed to allow other countries to join, and the existing agreement could be reformulated to allow China and Indonesia to be included.
The Trade Minister could not give a timeline of TPP 12 minus one negotiations, and said no modelling had been done on how valuable the agreement would be without the USA involved.
Labor trade spokesman Jason Clare has derided the government's aggressive pursuit of the TPP, saying the government's backing of the failed deal has dented its credibility.
Hope not lost among farmers
National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said of Australia's agricultural exports, around 50 per cent of beef, 33 per cent of lamb and 20 per cent of grain was already exported to TPP countries.
"That doesn't mean they'll automatically stop, but it does mean the opportunities for farmers and food manufacturers from that perspective are significantly reduced," he said.
The TPP potentially brought with it the long-held desire from Australia's sugar industry for better market access to the USA, almost doubling the amount of sugar imports permitted.
"That may seem small in the scheme of things, but it was quite a significant step for the US to agree to Australian sugar imports," Mr Mahar said.
"That's an example of just one of the significants outcomes the TPP was going to provide for sugar farmers."
The Winemakers Federation of Australia's CEO Tony Battaglene said the industry was "naturally disappointed in President Trump's decision".
"For us the TPP's specific annex about non-tariff measures — labelling, composition issues and other requirements for wine products ... would have given us the ability to sell products in the 12 countries without any trade restrictions due to those differing national standards."
The WFA, along with the NFF would be happy to see the government press for an 11-nation TPP agreement.
"The government should continue to pursue trade agreements with those countries, less the US."
Wait and see: expert
Former diplomat and trade expert Alan Oxley told ABC Radio Melbourne the strong support for the deal in the US Congress meant the TPP was not completely dead just yet.
"What's not achieved much notice is that at the end of the day, these decisions are taken with the Congress as well as the administration," he said.
"After the results of the congressional elections were known, when Republicans took over both houses, the leaders of both houses supported the TPP.
"One of them actually said 'we may need to wait a few years before we can revisit this', and I'd say that's a likely probability."
Mr Oxley doubts any effort to salvage a TPP 12 minus one deal would bear fruit.
"The TPP agreement has a provision which says it won't come into effect unless 85 per cent of all the GDP of the members is covered — that means the US and Japan," he said.
"Take one of those out and it won't be achieved, so it would require some negotiation."
But Mr Oxley believes the work done to get the TPP to the current stage indicates a strong willingness by member countries to open their economies further to international trade.
