Improved trade at top of president’s agenda
A summit this week between Southeast Asian leaders and President Obama is unlikely to deliver any big economic prizes, but will allow the American side to press the advantages of joining a Pacific trade pact that doesn’t include China.
The meetings at Rancho Mirage (Riverside County) set for Monday and Tuesday will be the first summit of its kind for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on U.S. soil. Its special nature is intended to show the Obama administration’s commit- ment to countering growing Chinese influence in a region that is home to 620 million people and a $2.6 trillion economy.
Southeast Asian nations have benefited from increased trade and investment stemming from their giant neighbor’s economic rise but many are wary of China gaining too much influence. The U.S., meanwhile, has an interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a crucial global trade route.
The summit is meant to send a signal that the U.S. values ASEAN, said U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, using the acronym for the Southeast Asian grouping. “We are going to be engaged in Southeast Asia, we’re going to be engaged in working with the nations of the Asia Pacific to clear rules of the road on the various issues of common interest that we share with them.”
The Southeast Asian nations of Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are already part of the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact that is awaiting ratification by national parliaments. The agreement eliminates many tariffs and also imposes minimum labor standards on member nations as part of U.S. efforts to set rules for trade and business in the region and beyond.
Indonesia, which is the largest economy in Southeast Asia, along with Thailand and the Philippines are prospective members of the pact, which took several years to negotiate and was a main plank in Obama’s drive for a deeper relationship with Asia.
Richard Javad Heydarian, assistant professor of political science at Manila’s De La Salle University, said he expects Obama to pitch the benefits of American-led economic initiatives.