Trump turns inward on trade
DANANG, Vietnam — President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to protect U.S. interests against foreign exploitation, preaching a starkly unilateralist approach to a group of leaders who once pinned their economic hopes on a regional trade pact led by the United States.
“We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore,” Trump told business leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang. “I am always going to put America first, the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first.”
But taking the stage at the same meeting immediately after Trump, President Xi Jinping of China delivered a sharply contrasting message, championing morerobust engagement with the world. Xi used his speech to make a spirited defense of globalization, saying relations among countries should be “more open, more inclusive, more balanced, more equitable and more beneficial to all.”
Trump’s remarks were strikingly hostile for an audience that included leaders who had supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation accord that was to be led by the U.S. but from which Trump withdrew upon taking office.
In the early hours of Saturday, trade ministers announced they had reached a basic agreement on a Pacific Rim trade pact without the United States. A statement said the accord was reached on "core elements" of an 11-member TransPacific Partnership. Under the terms, the United States could re-enter the pact in the future.
The developments indicated the degree to which, under Trump, the United States — once a dominant voice guiding discussions about trade at gatherings such as APEC — has ceded that role.
Promising to pursue “mutually beneficial commerce” through bilateral trade agreements, Trump roundly condemned the kind of multilateral accords his predecessors had pursued. His talk echoed his statements in China this week that blamed weak U.S. leadership for trade imbalances that he said had stripped jobs, factories and entire industries from the United States.
“What we will no longer do is enter into large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible,” Trump said.
He also spoke witheringly about an approach he said had led the United States to lower its trade barriers, only to have other countries refuse to do so. He accused the World Trade Organization of treating the United States unfairly.
Many of the president’s toughest lines — his vow to fight the “audacious theft” of intellectual property from U.S. companies and the forced transfer of technology to foreign firms — were aimed at China. But Trump avoided criticizing Xi personally. And he repeated his contention that he did not blame China, or any other country, for taking advantage of what he called weak U.S. trade laws.
“If their representatives are able to get away with it, they are just doing their jobs,” the president said. “I wish previous administrations in my country saw what was happening and did something about it. They did not, but I will.”
White House officials had framed Trump’s speech as a chance to articulate the idea of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region. It envisions the United States strengthening ties with three other democracies in the region — Australia, India and Japan — in part to counter a rising China. But the president offered few details.
He spoke of the need for freedom of navigation — a reference to the South China Sea, which Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries complain Beijing is turning into a private waterway. But the president stopped short of calling out China by name.
He also did not fault China or his host, Vietnam, for their checkered human rights records.
As in his speech to the U.N. in September, Trump emphasized the idea of sovereignty, a concept that is often seen as being at odds with global cooperation and that is sometimes used by countries to fend off interference by outside powers.
He closed the speech with an inward-looking paean to the virtues of home, declaring, “In all of the world, there is no place like home,” adding that nations should “protect your home, defend your home and love your home today and for all time.”
Xi, in contrast, argued for pursuing the kinds of global initiatives that Trump has shunned. The Chinese leader touted the Paris climate accord, called globalization an “irreversible historical trend” and said China would continue to pursue a free-trade area in the Asia-Pacific region.
U.S. and Russian officials had been working to arrange a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Trump on the sidelines of the meeting, in part to ask for Moscow’s assistance in countering the threat from North Korea. But as Trump arrived in Danang, the White House announced he would not hold formal talks with Putin because of scheduling issues.