Pacific Rim nations fight to save TPP trade pact

Asia-Pacific trade ministers agreed Sunday to try to revive a massive free trade pact, even though the US reaffirmed its decision to pull out, as fears grow of a new global era of protectionism.

The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership covered 40 percent of the global economy before Trump abruptly abandoned it in January to meet a campaign pledge to save American jobs which he says have been sucked up overseas.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand are leading efforts by the so-called TPP 11 to resuscitate the agreement, convinced it will lock in future free trade and strengthen labour rights and environmental protections.

After an early-morning huddle in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay told reporters the TPP 11 "are committed to finding a way forward to deliver" the pact.

Trade representatives agreed to help the United States to rejoin the deal at any time, pinning hopes on a U-turn in American policy. The TPP was in part crafted as a counterweight to the burgeoning economic might of China.

But Trump's newly-appointed trade chief Robert Lighthizer poured cold water on the prospect of a US return, saying Washington "pulled out of the TPP and it's not going to change that decision".

"The TPP 11 can make their own decisions, the United States makes its decisions, that's what sovereign nations do," Lighthizer told reporters, adding his nation will "stay engaged" in the area, albeit on a bilateral basis.

Spearheaded by then-US president Barack Obama, the far-reaching TPP -- which notably excludes China -- would have rewritten the rules of 21st century trade.

After seven years of negotiations the finalised proposal was signed in February last year, but cannot go into force until it is ratified by six countries with a combined 85 percent of the bloc's total GDP.

The deal goes further than most existing free trade pacts, with labour laws, environmental protections and intellectual property rights touted as a new gold standard for global trade.

It promised to transform smaller economies such as Vietnam by offering unprecedented access to the world's top economies.