U.S.: Canada, Mexico open to Pacific trade zone

A U.S.-backed initiative to forge a Pacific free trade bloc got a big boost Sunday when leaders of Canada and Mexico said their countries are interested in joining.

The news was a coup for President Obama, who had made progress on the pact one of his top priorities for the annual summit of Asia-Pacific leaders being held in his home state of Hawaii. It comes after Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, said it would join the nine nations already involved in talks on what has been dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership.