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| Image: Flickr User - US State Department |
By Shannon Tiezzi
At a regional summit, China and the U.S. promoted their divergent models for Asia-Pacific trade agreements.
Chinese President Xi Jinping continued to emphasize regional connectivity – including the completion of a free trade area spanning the entire Asia-Pacific region – at this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, even as the United States and other partners celebrated the conclusion of their own trade deal.
Xi also stressed a potential Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) last year, when China was hosting the APEC summit. In 2014, Chinese officials pushed for movement on FTAAP, arguing that it would reduce the fragmentation caused by the wealth of separate, non-inclusive FTAs in the region – including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which saw negotiations concluded earlier this year. China, which is not a member of the TPP, views FTAAP as the holy grail of trade agreements, and a way to effectively void the impact of TPP.
Despite rumors of U.S. opposition to the idea of FTAAP, the Leaders’ Declaration issued after the 2014 APEC summit in Beijing included an agreement “to launch a collective strategic study on issues related to the realization of the FTAAP.” The results of the study are scheduled to be announced by the end of 2016.
At this year’s APEC meeting, Xi picked up where he left off, with a continued push in favor of the FTAAP. In a keynote address at the APEC CEO summit on Wednesday, Xi outlined China’s vision for economic growth Asia-Pacific .The central theme of Xi’s speech was an appeal for economic unity among the Asia-Pacific economies. “All economies in the region must act in a responsible manner and work in unison to promote global growth,” Xi said in his speech.
Read the full story at The Diplomat