The White House has said it could still win congressional approval of the trade pact before Obama leaves office, and warned that failing to do so would undermine U.S. leadership in the region and allow China to increasingly set the terms of world trade.
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“Given the gaps of trust that exist, that’s a tough negotiation, and we haven’t yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work”, he said.
“Part of the reason is because we insist on a certain approach to our press pool, for example, that other countries may not insist on”, he told reporters at a press conference.
China hopes its status as this year’s G-20 leader will increase its influence in global economic management.
That’s according to a senior Obama administration official who spoke on grounds of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
China’s President Xi Jinping has urged the leaders to avoid “empty talk” and confront rising protectionism that threatens globalisation and free trade.
Moscow however always welcomes any contact with the United States, according to the Russian leader, who said that Washington is one of Russia’s key partners in a number of fields, including global security.
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion about whether, and how, they could agree on a deal, a senior US administration official said. Chinese officials want the G-20, created to respond to the 2008 financial crisis, to take on a longer-term regulatory role.
Kerry said the two sides had worked through many technical issues but said the USA didn’t want to enter into an illegitimate agreement. Washington has hiked import duties by up to 500 percent on Chinese steel to offset what it says are improper subsidies.
Heavy security for the event brought Hangzhou, a city of 2.5 million people, to a standstill and left downtown streets deserted.
North Korea reportedly fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday in its latest show of force, some two weeks after it test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who took office after the referendum, tried to reassure other governments Britain was not isolating itself.
“We need to protect the interests of the members of the European Union that want to stay together, not the one which wants to leave”, said Tusk.
“Can you believe that the Chinese would not give Obama the proper stairway to get off his plane – fight on tarmac!”
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On Ukraine, the senior administration official said that Obama stressed the need for full implementation of the Minsk agreement – a cease-fire pact originally agreed to in 2014 – and made clear to Putin that US sanctions against Russian Federation will continue if it is not fully implemented.
