US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will attend a virtual summit of Asia Pacific leaders on Friday to discuss the coronavirus and global economic recovery, with lingering trade differences likely to cloud the meeting.
The pair will be at a meeting of 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders hosted virtually by Malaysia just two weeks after Trump lost his bid for re-election.
Asia Pacific leaders have called for more open and multilateral trade to support economic recovery and warned against protectionist trade policies.
After coming to power in 2017, Trump slapped tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, launching a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
At the last APEC summit in 2018, member countries failed to agree on a joint statement for the first time in the bloc’s history, as the United States and China disagreed on trade and investment.
In the lead up to Friday’s meeting, several APEC leaders warned against protectionism as the world grapples with the economic impact of the new coronavirus.
“As we face the greatest economic challenge of this generation, we must not repeat the mistakes of history by backtracking into protectionism,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the APEC CEO Dialogues on Friday.
“APEC must continue to commit to keeping markets open and trade flowing.”
Xi said Thursday that “increasing unilateralism, protectionism and intimidation, as well as a backlash against economic globalization,” have added to the risks and uncertainties in the world economy.
He said that China will remain committed to multilateralism, openness and cooperation.
Other Asia Pacific leaders have also expressed hope that a Joe Biden administration will become more involved and support multilateral trade.
Japan aims to expand the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday, potentially responding to the interest of China and Britain in joining the agreement.
Trump removed the United States from the trade pact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the predecessor of the CPTPP. The United States is also absent from the world’s largest free trade bloc, the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP), a 15-nation pact backed by China that was signed last week.
The Trump administration has been criticized for a lower level of engagement in Asia. The only time he has joined an APEC summit, which takes place annually, was in 2017. Last year’s summit in Chile was canceled due to violent protests.
Trump also missed two virtual Asian meetings last week: the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and the broader East Asia Summit.
In addition to working on a joint communiqué, APEC leaders are also expected to discuss the bloc’s vision after 2020, which would replace the 1994 Bogor Goals, a set of goals to reduce barriers to trade and investment, which expire this year.
(Information from Rozanna Latiff and A. Ananthalakshmi; additional information from Kiyoshi Takenaka and Ju-min Park in Tokyo; Editing by Sam Holmes)
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