Trump brings tough trade message to APEC

DANANG, Vietnam — U.S. President Donald Trump set out a strong message on trade at a meeting of Asia-Pacific countries in Vietnam on Friday, saying the United States could no longer tolerate chronic trade abuses and would insist on fair and equal policies.

Trump said the United States was ready to make a bilateral deal with any country in the Indo-Pacific region, but only on the basis of “mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

Although he was addressing a meeting alongside the summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, Trump repeatedly referred to the Indo-Pacific region and mentioned the importance of India in his speech.

“When the United States enters into a trading relationship with other countries or other peoples, we will from now on expect that our partners will faithfully follow the rules,” he said in the seaside resort of Danang.

“We expect that markets will be open to an equal degree on both sides and that private investment, not government planners, will direct investment,” he said in a speech ahead of a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders.

Trump arrived in Vietnam from China on the fourth leg of a 12-day trip to Asia. Redressing the balance of trade between Asia and the United States is at the center of Trump’s “America First” policy he says will protect U.S. workers.

The difference between Trump’s and China’s approaches was made more stark by comments in a later speech from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who said globalization was an irreversible trend and voiced support for multilateral trade deals.

While China has by far the biggest trade surplus with the United States, Vietnam is also on the list of those surpluses the Trump administration seeks to reduce.

APEC, which has long championed free trade, has itself been convulsed by the changes under Trump.

Since Trump abandoned the Trans Pacific Partnership TPP trade deal early in his presidency, the remaining 11 members have struggled to build momentum to keep it alive.

Leaders of TPP countries are due to meet on Friday after talks among ministers ended in confusion on Thursday with Japan’s economy minister saying that they “agree in principle” and his Canadian counterpart saying that was not true.

Trump broke early with the “Pivot to Asia” of the Obama administration, worrying some traditional allies that he would allow China to extend its increasing dominance.

South China Sea

Danang itself sits on the shore of the South China Sea, one of the region’s biggest security headaches and where China’s neighbors challenge its sweeping claim to most of the waterway as having no basis in law.

Trump said the region’s future depended on upholding “freedom of navigation and overflight, including open shipping lanes.” He also mentioned “territorial expansion” among evils such as drugs, people smuggling and terrorism.

Vietnam has become one of the most vocal critics of China’s claims in the South China Sea and its construction of artificial islands.

In a sign of possible competition with China’s grand Belt and Road plan, Trump said he would push the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to fund infrastructure development and would reform U.S. development finance institutions.

Trump said that would “provide strong alternatives to state directed initiatives that come with many strings attached.”

“Above all, we seek friendship and we don’t dream of domination,” he said.

Danang has a special place in U.S.-Vietnamese history: it was where the first U.S. ground troops disembarked in 1965 in the escalation of a war that would last another decade before the communist victory.

Danang was close to some of the heaviest fighting and its air base was the route through which many Americans of Trump’s generation were sent to the war.

Trump himself did not serve, receiving five deferments — one for bone spurs in his heel.

source: interaksyon.com

US-China jockeying, South China Sea sidetrack APEC agenda

MANILA, Philippines -- Asia-Pacific leaders will wrap up on Thursday two days of talks that have been overshadowed by arm wrestling for regional influence between the United States and China.

The annual 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering -- hosted this year by the Philippines -- is meant to forge trade unity but often finds itself sidetracked by other events.

This year the summit has heard intense rhetoric over the South China Sea, a strategically vital body of water claimed almost in its entirety by China.

Smaller nations with overlapping claims, including summit host the Philippines, are rattled by China's increasing assertiveness in the sea.

These actions have included a spate of island building on disputed reefs and shoals, and many Asian nations are looking to Washington for support.

China had been hoping that the long festering territorial dispute would not surface at the trade gathering.

But those hopes were dashed when US president Barack Obama flew into Manila on Tuesday and announced more than $250 million in maritime aid for those Southeast Asian allies.

He also offered a warship to the Philippines, one of Beijing's most vocal critics in the dispute.

On Wednesday, shortly before the trade talks got underway, Obama repeated Washington's demand that China halt any further land reclamation and militarization.

"We discussed the impact of China’s land reclamation and construction activities on regional stability," Obama told reporters after meeting Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

"We agree on the need for bold steps to lower tensions, including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction, and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea."

Vietnam also signed a strategic partnership this week in Manila with the Philippines, deepening security ties partly in response to Chinese assertiveness in the sea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has studiously avoided bringing up the dispute at the talks in Manila.

But officials in Beijing reacted with anger to Obama's efforts to bolster US allies, while insisting China's construction work in the contested areas was "lawful, justified and reasonable."

"If there is something that should stop, it is the United States should stop playing up the South China Sea issue, stop heightening tensions in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

APEC members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have rival claims to parts of the sea, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas resources.

Obama and many Southeast Asia nations attending the Manila trade talks will proceed onto Malaysia for a regional summit.

The South China Sea row, the specter of terrorism and the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership free trade pact are likely to again be the main subjects of discussion in Malaysia.

source: interaksyon.com

China, Russia sound alarm on world economy at APEC summit

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - China and Russia sounded the alarm about the state of the global economy and urged Asian-Pacific countries at a summit on Saturday to protect themselves by forging deeper regional economic ties.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Beijing would do all it could to strengthen the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by rebalancing its economy, Asia's biggest, to improve the chances of a global economic recovery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said trade barriers must be smashed down as he opened the APEC summit which he is hosting on a small island linked to the Pacific port of Vladivostok by a spectacular new bridge that symbolizes Moscow's pivotal turn to Asia away from debt-stricken Europe.

"It's important to build bridges, not walls. We must continue striving for greater integration," Putin told the APEC leaders, seated at a round table in a room with a view of the $1 billion cable-stayed bridge, the largest of its kind.

"The global economic recovery is faltering. We can overcome the negative trends only by increasing the volume of trade in goods and services and enhancing the flow of capital."

Hu told business leaders before the summit the world economy was being hampered by "destabilizing factors and uncertainties" and the crisis that hit in 2008-09 was far from over. China would play its role, he said, in strengthening the recovery.

"We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations. We will boost domestic demand and maintain steady and robust growth as well as basic price stability," he said.

Hu spelled out plans for China, whose economic growth has slowed as Europe's debt crisis worsened, to pump $157 billion into infrastructure investment in agriculture, energy, railways and roads.

Hu steps down as China's leader in the autumn after a Communist Party congress, but he promised continuity and stability for the economy.

Putin, who has just begun a new six-year term as president, said on Friday Russia would be a stable energy supplier and a gateway to Europe for Asian countries, and also pledged to develop his country's transport network.

RUSSIA LOOKS EAST

The relative strength of China's economy, by far the largest in Asia and second in the world to the United States, is key to Russia's decision to look eastwards as it seeks to develop its economy and Europe battles economic problems.

APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, groups countries around the Pacific Rim which account for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade.

APEC members are broadly showing relatively strong growth, but boosting trade and growth is vital for the group as it tries to remove the trade barriers that hinder investment.

The European Union has been at odds with both China and Russia over trade practices it regards as limiting free competition. Cooperation in APEC is also hindered by territorial and other disputes among some of the members.

Putin, 59, limped slightly as he greeted leaders at the summit. Aides said he had merely pulled a muscle. Underlining Putin's good health, a spokesman said he had a "very active lifestyle."

Discussions at the two-day meeting will focus on food security and trade liberalization. An agreement was reached before the summit to slash import duties on technologies that can promote economic growth without endangering the environment.

Breakthroughs are not expected on other trade issues at the meeting, which U.S. President Barack Obama is missing. He has been attending the Democratic Party convention and Washington is being represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

U.S. officials say Clinton's trip is partly intended to assess Russia's push to expand engagement in Asia, which parallels Washington's own turn towards the Asia-Pacific region.

Also missing the summit was Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Putin said she had dropped out because her father had died.

source: interaksyon.com