Canada puts TPP deal in doubt
Pacific countries abandon crunch meeting after Prime Minister Trudeau refuses to attend
The future of TPP has been thrown into doubt after Canada's sudden refusal to attend the final leaders' meeting in Danang, Vietnam, which was then cancelled.
The 10 other leaders including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern turned up fully expecting Canada to be present at 8pm NZ time.
Instead they found Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, holding crisis meetings with Canada's Justin Trudeau over an undisclosed issue.
Abe returned to the room saying Trudeau was not attending and so the meeting was abandoned by the other countries — New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Vietnam.
It will be extremely difficult to find any more time during the Apec summit to take the issue further.
That leaves the options of trying to restart negotiations at a later time, possibly next year, exploring the possibility of TPP without Canada or ditching it altogether.
Ardern told New Zealand reporters that talks had been “postponed” and there was no suggestion of when they would reconvene.
She said she was left with the impression that Canada had withdrawn from the negotiations.
The dramas over Canada are not related to the bizarre events of earlier in the evening, when the TPP deal was declared done by trade ministers, including Canada's Trade Minister, but Vietnam then objected to a particular issue.
That issue was resolved during the day before the aborted leaders' meeting.
Ardern said she was would be “guessing at this point” whether the developments signalled the end of TPP.
“It is a significantly different deal without Canada in it,” she said.
Trade Minister David Parker said all of Canada's issues appeared to have been resolved to their satisfaction on Thursday night.
“That seemed to change today,” he said last night.
Parker said New Zealand and Australia were surprised at Canada's sudden change of view.
Ardern said the news would be disappointing for New Zealand exporters.
“But we can’t control the decisions of other countries. No one at the table could.”
Ardern is scheduled to meet with Trudeau in the Philippines on Monday or Tuesday at the East Asia Summit.
Asked if US president Donald Trump would get any satisfaction from Canada's actions — given that he withdrew the US from TPP in January — the Prime Minister said leaders were focused on what it meant for their own countries, and not on Trump.
Today Ardern goes into the full Apec summit leaders’ retreat and will raise issues of social inclusiveness Jacinda Ardern may be the subject of some curiosity at today’s Apec leaders’ retreat in Vietnam by virtue of her age and rapid rise to leadership.
But there will be no competing with the phenomenon of another Apec newcomer, United States President Donald Trump, who is storming his way around Asia with wife Melania. and climate change when she makes her first comments to fellow leaders.
It is traditionally an economic and trade forum but discussions sometimes stretch into other areas.
“I think what you’ll hear from New Zealand is no different to what we talk about domestically,” she said.
Trump has been feted, flattered and fawned over in Japan and South Korea, both military allies, and in China, now Vietnam and from tomorrow, the Philippines, which will host the Asean and East Asia Summits.
The 21 leaders will spend today in a retreat, some of it in a large forum, but with plenty of opportunities for informal conversations .
“I’m pleased that at a regional level we are talking about ways to make sure that all of our citizens benefit from economic prosperity and I’d say that should be spreading to our trade agenda — what we can do to make sure that more businesses, more grouping are benefiting from that trade agenda.
“But you will equally see me talking about the impacts of climate change on this region.
“It’s an issue that deserves to be on the table and that desperately needs to be.”
Ardern has already made an impact at Apec, giving a speech to a CEO
Ardern will not be fawning over Trump.
She was offended at having been compared to the president in a Wall St Journal tweet — calling her New Zealand’s Justin Trudeau but more like Trump on immigration.
Their contributions to the Apec summit are likely to be vastly different, with Ardern intending to focus on inclusiveness and climate
summit in which she called for politics to be put aside when dealing with climate change.
“Climate change is the greatest challenge facing this generation,” she said to applause.
Ardern held formal bilateral meetings with the leaders of Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia and was accompanied by Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Trade Minister David Parker.
After her meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc surprised Ardern with an oil painting of herself. change. Trump is likely to advance the theme he has continued throughout his trip — the potential threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear programme — even though Apec is an economic forum, not a security one.
Trump is one of four newcomers to Apec, the others being Ardern, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam. The US president
It was the second gift of the day after Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg presented her with a portrait of Kate Sheppard, the leading figure of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand.
At the start of her meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe she thanked him for his leadership in the region, without specifically mentioning TPP.
After the TPP meeting, Ardern was due to attend the gala dinner with the 21 leaders, including US President Donald Trump and China’s President, Xi Jinping. is one of four leaders at Apec in their 70s, three are in their 50s, one, Justin Trudeau, is in his 40s and Ardern is the only one in her 30s. Eleven are in their 60s.
Ardern took the Labour Party leadership on August 1, and after the September election was chosen by New Zealand First on October 19 to form a coalition Government.
Audrey Young
We can’t control the decisions of other countries.
Jacinda Ardern
Ardern meets Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today to mark Armistice Day.
They have no formal bilateral set down for the Apec summit after having had one just a week ago in Sydney.
But Ardern plans to again raise the issue of Manus Island with him and New Zealand’s offer — declined for now — to take 150 asylum seekers who are refusing to leave their detention centre in Papua New Guinean.
“Australia did not reject the offer. We are continuing to pursue it directly with them.”