TRUMP’S SHADOW OVER APEC SUMMIT
Regional grouping will play host to US president tomorrow, even as questions linger over America’s trade policies
THE future of global trade comes under the microscope this week as Donald Trump addresses Asia-Pacific leaders in Vietnam, a visit that will be carefully examined for clues as to how his “America First” mantra will guide American engagement with the world.
During a sweep through Asia, the United States president has sought to build a consensus against North Korean nuclear ambitions.
But he has also raised loud objections to what he calls “unfair” trade, an election campaign cornerstone that saw him scoop up votes by promising to re-write the rules of global trade in America’s favour.
Analysts expect him to put meat on the bones of his “America First” rhetoric here tomorrow when he arrives for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, a forum of 21-nations representing 60 per cent of global gross domestic product.
Shortly after landing, he will address a room packed with global chief executives — a speech that will be closely-watched for details on how he intends to engage with the world’s economy.
Trump wants to “ensure that governments do not unfairly subsidise their industries, discriminate against foreign business, or restrict foreign investment,” his national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters ahead of his trip.
Previously, the US president has said America’s powerhouse economy means it can write its own terms of trade bilaterally with its partners.
He has railed at mulitlateralism for supposedly pinching American jobs by giving an advantage to countries with cheap labour and heavy subsidies, pulling the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The TPP was chiselled out under Barack Obama’s administration during a “pivot” to Asia, presented as a counterpoint to China’s growing regional heft.
But the ascent of the combative billionaire Trump — and the accompanying threat of an American retreat — has allowed China to stake out its ground as the new architect of global commerce.
When Trump speaks tomorrow, the “indications are he’ll elaborate on this idea of an open and free Indo-Pacific region,” said David Dollar, an analyst at the Brookings Institution.
At the Apec summit, which begins on Saturday, he is likely to encounter other resistance to his trade narrative.
The block, which has a combined GDP of some US$45 trillion (RM190.11 trillion), brings in 21 Pacific rim economies, from giants like the US, China and Japan, to poorer but booming nations like Vietnam and Indonesia.
A stream of world leaders — including Japan’s Shinzo Abe and China’s Xi Jingping — are expected to champion multilateralism in speeches bookending Trump’s address tomorrow.
On the sidelines, the remaining 11 TPP economies are aiming to resuscitate their deal, without the US.
“Indications seem positive” for an agreement to press on with the so-called TPP-11 in Danang, said a diplomatic source.
There are hopes a revived TPP11 — driven through by Japan — could eventually prod the US to return to the deal.
But as trade delegations met ahead of Apec, diplomats said Washington appears poised to pare back its involvement in the global trade order.
The US has already opposed the use of “multilateral trading system” in the Apec leaders’ statement – a standard phrase used by the grouping. AFP