Obama and many Southeast Asia nations attending the Manila trade talks will proceed onto Malaysia for a regional summit.
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The summit also discussed the need to invest in logistics and infrastructure. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for one, seemed ready to raise issues concerning the South China Sea.
“There has not been a trade deal that has been done in modern American politics that is not occasionally challenging, but we get it done, and I’m confident we are going to be able to get it done”, he said.
A final report is scheduled to be submitted to the leaders at next year’s APEC summit in Peru.
The territorial dispute is not officially on the agenda of the summit – but it is expected to cast a shadow over it, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, APEC members made a decision to hold the annual summit in South Korea in 2025.
Vietnam also signed a strategic partnership this week in Manila with the Philippines, deepening security ties partly in response to Chinese assertiveness in the sea. China is now seeking approval for its own regional deal, the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).
“It is growth that creates jobs, sends children to school, puts food on the table, raises standards of living, protects the environment, fosters creativity and innovation and levels the playing field”, he said.
Although the issue was not raised at the summit, fierce debate on the issue could emerge at another regional conference in the coming days.
These actions have included a spate of island building on disputed reefs and shoals, and many Asian nations have been looking to Washington for support.
Trudeau said he wanted to “reassure Canadians and others that we are serious about meeting our emissions reductions targets”.
China has distanced itself from these countries, however.
Xi also called for concerted efforts to boost the openness of the Asia-Pacific economy and safeguard multilateral trading systems.
“The World Trade Organisation’s failure, todate, means regional integration is the best move and catalyst to the expansion of trade and investment”, he said.
Still, the 21 APEC members including China have said that the TPP is the basis for realizing the FTAAP.
However, the main concern among these 12 was whether the U.S. Congress would ratify the pact before Obama leaves office in just over a year from now. “It is unlikely that the US will go head to head with China over the islets and waters being claimed by the Philippines”, said Renato Reyes, Jr, the general secretary of activist organization Bayan. Although he did not specifically name any trade pacts, it is widely thought that he was referring to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. Ma Jun, the chief economist of the People’s Bank of China said Beijing stands to lose 2.2 percentage points in GDP if it is not part of the TPP.
Although APEC discussions generally revolve around on economic and trade relations, the leaders pointed out that economic growth and human security are not mutually exclusive.
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“Looking at the big picture, losses incurred this week will be recovered eventually in terms of continuing and sustained growth and development of the Philippine economy as a favored investment and tourism destination”, he said.
