Kevin Rudd says it's a good idea to keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership alive.
The former prime minister, now president of the Asia Society, told a forum in New York on Wednesday night (NYC time) he had proposed when in office that the US keep the door open to China joining the Pacific trade pact.
"On the Australian proposal ... with a twist to the formulation, if it's possible across the remaining parties to sustain the TPP, good," Mr Rudd told the Asia Society forum.
"Secondly, throw it to the Chinese as an invitation, because it is WTO (World Trade Organisation)-plus.
"Thirdly, leave it open for the United States in terms of future accession - I think that has some logical merit."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is likely to press ahead with Australia's ratification of the TPP, arguing it is good for jobs and economic growth.
But the Labor opposition says the agreement is "dead" because US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from it.
The TPP covers Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the remaining TPP countries strongly supported the agreement.
"We will be consulting with the other countries that have agreed to the TPP ... (and) we'll be looking to see what new arrangements can evolve from the TPP," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"A great deal of work has gone into it."
He said the decision on when legislation would be introduced to parliament would depend on talks with other TPP countries and whether it appeared likely the Senate might pass it.
Mr Turnbull said nothing was impossible, but he did not think it was likely in the "foreseeable future" that the US would rejoin the TPP.
