APEC fails to reach consensus as US-China divide dominates

Port Moresby, November 18 

Asia-Pacific leaders failed to agree on a communique at a summit in Papua New Guinea on Sunday for the first time in their history as deep divisions between the United States and China over trade and investment stymied cooperation.

Competition between the United States and China over the Pacific was also thrown into focus with the United States and its Western allies launching a coordinated response to China’s Belt and Road programme.

“You know the two big giants in the room,” Papua New Guinea (PNG) PM Peter O’Neill said at a closing news conference, when asked which of the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group could not agree.

O’Neill, who was chairman of the meeting, said the sticking point was over whether mention of the World Trade Organisation and its possible reform should be in the Leaders’ Declaration.

“APEC has got no charter over World Trade Organisation, that is a fact. Those matters can be raised at the World Trade Organisation.”

The multilateral trade order that APEC was established in 1989 to protect is crumbling as Chinese assertiveness in the Pacific and US tariffs strain relations in the region and divide loyalties.

A Leaders’ Declaration has been issued after every annual APEC leaders’ meeting since the first in 1993, the group’s website shows.

O’Neill said that as APEC host, he would release a Chairman’s Statement, though it was not clear when.

US President Donald Trump did not attend the meeting and nor did his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. US Vice-President Mike Pence attended instead of Trump.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived to great fanfare on Thursday and was feted by PNG officials. He stoked Western concern on Friday when he met Pacific island leaders to pitch his Belt and Road initiative.

The United States and its allies, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, countered on Sunday with a $1.7 billion plan to deliver reliable electricity and the internet to PNG.

The spat ramps up the stakes for a crunch meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Argentina at the end of the month. — Reuters

Beijing slams Pence; says no country in debt trap because of BRI

• China on Sunday hit back at US Vice-President Mike Pence for accusing it of luring developing nations into a debt trap through the loans Beijing offers for infrastructure, asserting that not a single country has been “mired in debt” because of cooperation with it
• Vice-President Pence in his combative address at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Papua New Guinea on Saturday said China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is saddling developing countries with loans they cannot afford
• Touted as Xi’s ambitious project, the BRI initiative focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe. Xi also lashed out at “America First” trade protectionism, saying it was a “short-sighted approach” 

APEC future in doubt     

• With Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin absent and leaders unable even to agree a joint statement, some critics are questioning whether the annual APEC summit is still worth the effort
• The two-day gathering in Papua New Guinea was almost five years in making, cost millions of US dollars and required the deployment of at least one battleship and three cruise liners
• The grouping was born in 1989 as a way of promoting trade liberalisation. But that cause has fallen out of vogue and Port Moresby was little more than a different venue for another China-US bunfight
• For the first time ever, the leaders failed to reach a joint declaration, usually a technocratic exercise in fudging differences and promising great things to come
• It is a heartbreaking result for host Papua New Guinea, which was making its debut on the international stage, at no insignificant cost