The White House has announced that President Obama has cancelled his trip to Bali for APEC, where the political trade-offs on the TPPA were expected to get underway.

Obama had already canned the Malaysia and Philippines legs of his Asia trip, which was seen as a blow to the US strategy to reassert its presence in the region and impress on its political leaders that the US takes Asia seriously.

Secretary of State John Kerry will apparently replace Obama at APEC. Presumably, this means Kerry will also chair the meeting of leaders from TPPA countries on the margins at Bali.

A meeting of the chief negotiators last week made no significant progress on key areas of disagreement.

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