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Australia's ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey has criticised the US for reneging on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, touting the benefits of free trade, at the launch of a new report in Washington.
"You can't turn free trade on and off like a tap," he said.
"You can never win a game of football if you keep changing the rules during the game, that's the bottom line, and it ends up being a really ugly game to watch."
In a speech to diplomats and trade experts, Mr Hockey expressed disappointment with the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
"The United States helped to create the global trading system. That helped to make America great in the first place," he said.
Mr Hockey also criticised the rise of anti-globalisation and protectionist sentiment.
"These initiatives fly in the face of nearly 100 years of American history and certainly, unquestionably, will affect the quality of life for people into the future," he said.
He made the remarks in Washington while launching a new report examining the future of trade in the Asia Pacific region.
The report, released by the Asia Society Policy Institute, urged the United States to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the agreement, and recommended advancing the TPP even without US participation.
It also called for nations and institutions to improve their messaging.
Former Australian ambassador to Japan and report co-author Peter Grey said political leaders had failed in selling the benefits of the agreement.
"I don't think even in the Australian context we've completely sold the population as a whole on it," he said.
"We've all failed as negotiators and as political leaders in selling the benefits of trade."
Mr Grey said the TPP could go ahead with some amendments.
"I think you can do something, it won't be the TPP obviously as it is now, the United States was a critical part of it," he said.
"But you're still talking about some of the largest economies in the world being part of TPP."
Vietnam's ambassador to the US, Pham Quang Vinh, urged countries not to abandon the trade pact.
"For us, we think one way or another, don't kill the TPP right now, not yet," he said.
The report also recommended implementing the standards negotiated in the deal as a framework for reforms and future multilateral trade agreements.
Nations including Australia are expected to hold discussions on the future of the deal during trade talks in Chile next week.
Topics: trade, hockey-joe, donald-trump, international-aid-and-trade, united-states, australia