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China's Xi Urges APEC Members to 'Uphold Multilateralism'

  • China's President Xi Jinping arrives for the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, Nov. 10, 2017.

    China's President Xi Jinping arrives for the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, Nov. 10, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 10 November 2017
Opinion

“Openness brings progress, while self-seclusion leaves one behind,” Xi said.

In his speech at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam, Chinese President Xi Jinping contradicted U.S. President Donald Trump’s earlier speech that supported a closed, nationalist, “America First” stance, calling instead for multilateralism.

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“Openness brings progress, while self-seclusion leaves one behind,” Xi said, asking the 21 member states, “Should we steer economic globalization, or should we dither and stall in the face of challenge? Should we jointly advance regional cooperation or should we go our separate ways?” and urging them to “uphold multilateralism.”

Xi stated that globalization is an irreversible trend, that must be “balanced and inclusive.”

Trump had accused other member nations at the APEC meeting of “chronic trade abuses,” saying that the U.S. would only participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership when “there is a just and reciprocal trade deal.”

Despite his rhetoric, Trump just signed a US$250 billion trade deal with Xi days earlier in Beijing.

The 11 nations that remain interested in the TTP were set to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit to discuss the deal. Yet tensions rose in light of the U.S. reiterating that it is not committed to the deal, and because Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prefers to focus on the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations coming up in mid-November before entering into a new, multi-national commerce pact.

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Xi has introduced a more encompassing trade negotiation than the stalled TPP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which includes Australia, India and more than a dozen other interested countries, but not the United States. The end goal would be to create a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

“We should support the multilateral trading system and practice open regionalism, to allow developing members to benefit more from international trade and investment,” Xi said.

APEC, formed in 1989, includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, U.S., the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and host Vietnam.

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