Vietnam on Monday became the seventh country to ratify a sprawling Pacific trade pact set to come into effect later this year, despite US President Donald Trump's pullout from a deal he decried as a "job killer".
Eleven countries revived a slimmed-down version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without Washington, though the new pact keeps the door open in case of a change of heart - or government - in the world's largest economy.
Australia last month became the sixth country to ratify the deal, paving the way for the pact to come into force at the end of December with more than half of its members officially signed on. Vietnam followed suit on Monday with a unanimous vote to approve the deal by lawmakers in the country's rubber stamp parliament. "This is an important political decision, affirming our country's active role in international integration," said Nguyen Van Giau, head of the National Assembly's external relations department. Vietnam's fast-growing export economy stood to gain enormously from open access to US markets, a key outlet for cheap manufactured goods like Adidas shoes, Gap T-shirts and Samsung phones, before Trump pulled the plug on Washington's participation.
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