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APEC summit host urges respect for trade rules
PORT MORESBY, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The leader of Papua New Guinea,
host of this year’s APEC summit, Friday urged respect for international trade
rules by “countries large and small” as spats between the US and China
threatened to overshadow the gathering.
As leaders from Asian Pacific nations prepared to fly in to Port Moresby
for their annual meeting, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill appeared to call his
guests to order on damaging trade rows.
“Smaller economies, countries like Papua New Guinea, place considerable
reliance on international trade and especially the international trade
rules,” stressed O’Neill.
“We suffer when rules are broken or ignored and we benefit when rules are
followed by all countries, large and small,” he added.
The world’s top two economies have been engaged in a spiralling trade
conflict that economists have warned could be catastrophic for the global
economy.
Washington and Beijing have slapped tit-for-tat tariffs worth billions of
dollars on each other’s goods and both sides have threatened to escalate the
conflict if needed.
China is pushing a trade deal with other Asian powers like Japan and India
— a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — after US President
Donald Trump pulled out of the rival Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The TPP is still alive even without Washington — and will come into
effect in December — but RCEP, if realised, will be the world’s biggest
trade deal.
Beijing had hoped to have the meat of the deal done by the end of this
year, but the timetable has now slipped to 2019.
Foreign ministers meeting ahead of the APEC summit, which kicks off on
Saturday, failed to agree immediately on a joint statement amid disagreements
over language on reforming the World Trade Organization.
The United States is thought to be pushing for tough language criticising
the WTO and urging root-and-branch reform but appears to have run into
opposition.
O’Neill seemed to come to the WTO’s defence, saying that Papua New Guinea
was “playing an increasing role, like everyone else, in international forums
such as the WTO”.
“We must continue that. We must continue to benefit from such
arrangements,” said the prime minister.
BSS/AFP/HR/0922