The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit kicked off Friday with speeches from both U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Despite lingering trade differences, the participating countries issued their first joint communiqué from the meeting in three years.
Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies, including the United States and China, attended a virtual summit hosted by Malaysia, where they pledged not to adopt protectionist trade policies to help the global economy, which has been hit hard by the neo-crowning pandemic.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters after the meeting: “The impact of the U.S.-China trade war has been overshadowed by the neo-crown epidemic.”
He also said, “APEC has also pledged that there will be no backsliding and no protectionist measures to keep markets and borders open.”
In the joint communiqué, the leaders said they recognized “the importance of a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment” and committed to promoting economic growth during the neo-crown crisis.
The 2018 APEC summit failed to produce a joint communiqué due to U.S.-China disagreements on issues such as trade and investment, and last year’s planned summit in Chile was canceled due to unrest in that country.
During Trump’s presidency, the U.S. began withdrawing from multilateral institutions, leaving room for China to write the rules of business in the Asia-Pacific, and Beijing used the opportunity to corral countries and offset U.S. influence in the region.
In a closed-door event that lasted about two hours, Trump said he was committed to promoting peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific through a strong economic recovery, and also emphasized U.S. leadership in global health. It was Trump’s first appearance at an APEC summit since 2017 and his first international conference appearance since the U.S. presidential election.
In his speech, the White House said in a statement Friday that Trump “reaffirmed that the United States will continue to achieve unprecedented economic recovery from the neo-crowning epidemic and promote peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region through strong economic growth.”
The statement also said, “President Trump also emphasized U.S. leadership in global health, including our successful development of a safe and effective neocrown vaccine.”
Trump and APEC leaders adopted the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040. According to Trump, “the vision will make free and fair trade the focus of the APEC agenda for the next 20 years.”
Xi Jinping, in the same speech, called for free and open trade and investment and supported multilateralism.
Chinese official Xinhua reported that Xi said, “The Asia-Pacific region should continue to lead the way, resolutely maintain peace and stability, firmly defend multilateralism, and insist on building an open world economy.”
However, Xi’s remarks raised questions. For many countries, Beijing is increasingly using trade as a means of retaliation and control in foreign affairs, using its vast economic output as a bargaining chip to strong-arm weaker opponents.
Xi also said that China would consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a huge regional free trade agreement that was championed by the United States under the Obama administration and later abandoned by the Trump administration.
This year’s APEC summit comes a week after China and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries signed another free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest.
Some analysts see the agreement’s exclusion of the United States as evidence of Beijing’s desire to bolster its image as a dominant economic power in its neighborhood as Washington backs down.
But some experts point out that RCEP is more symbolic than real, and that ASEAN is the organization’s dominant power. The U.S., with the world’s largest demand market, remains a target for RCEP members, including China, to actively pursue.
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