"You can expect a final decision in favor of putting the pact into effect from this November’s meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders," Ricardo Luna said late Thursday.
More than a half of 21 APEC countries are currently involved in the talks on the controversial free trade pact that was signed by 12 countries in February 2016. It is yet to be ratified by legislatures of most signatory states.
The aim of the agreement was to eliminate trade barriers among Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, which together account for 40 percent of the world's economy.
But Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement after becoming president in January as part of his "America First" foreign trade policy, saying the TPP would cost his country jobs.
