Australia and New Zealand pledge to salvage TPP after US exit. Australia Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said today that to salvage the Trans-Pacific Partnership by encouraging China and other Asian nations into the agreement in the wake of US President Donald Trump's decision to pull his country out of the pact. New Zealand's Trade Minister Todd McClay said, ministers from the remaining TPP countries would meet in the next few months to discuss how to save the trade deal, which was seen in Asia as a counterbalance to China's rising influence.<br/><br/>Fulfilling a campaign pledge Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office yesterday pulling the United States out of the 2015 TPP agreement and distancing the United States from its Asian allies. The trade deal, which the United States had signed but not ratified, was a pillar of former US President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted it as an engine of economic reform, as well as a counter-weight to a rising China, which is not a TPP member. TPP member Australia said China and Indonesia could join in the vacuum left by the United Sates. The TPP had yet to come into force with many countries still to ratify it.