Outside In | Nha Trang APEC meeting likely to dish up a fascinating insight into reshifting China/US relations
In the likely US team (of Wilbur Ross, Peter Navarro, Robert Lighthizer, and Rex Tillerson) you have as unlikely a bunch of trade liberalisers as anyone has seen in the US in the past half century
As we begin a new APEC year under the chairmanship of Vietnam, with the region’s senior officials set to gather in Nha Trang in just a month’s time to frame the year’s agenda, I sense the 21-economy grouping will this year have its mettle tested more than ever before.
For almost 27 years, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping (APEC) has made a huge contribution to lowering barriers to trade and investment across the Asia Pacific region. Its aspiration towards regional economic integration has been relentlessly pursued. But for the first time in its lifetime, these core convictions are being tested.
Forged as the Uruguay Round of trade liberalisation negotiations were successfully completed, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) blossomed to become the World Trade Organisation (WTO), APEC embodied the optimistic spirit of the moment.
Its core commitments, formalised in Bogor in Indonesia, to the ultimate and beneficial goal of free and open trade and investment in the region by 2020, were unanimously endorsed, energetically pursued and have never been questioned – until now.
APEC members have pursued these goals, confident that on balance trade openness and the globalisation process linked with them, are bringing huge benefits to our economies – strengthening growth, raising living standards, and creating millions of high-value-adding jobs. The success of this aspiration is in evidence across every economy in the region.
