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Bolstering supply chains is a key focus of this year’s APEC talks, hosted in the historic town of Gyeongju. The 21-member economic club aims to encourage cooperation and reduce trade and investment barriers, though decisions made at meetings are non-binding and consensus has been increasingly difficult.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stood in for the absent Trump.
XI MEETS JAPAN’S NEW HAWKISH LEADER
While relations between the historic rivals have been on a sounder footing in recent years, Takaichi’s surprise elevation to become Japan’s first female leader may strain ties due to her nationalistic views and hawkish security policies.
One of her first acts since taking office last week was to accelerate a military build-up aimed at deterring the territorial ambitions of an increasingly assertive China in East Asia. Japan also hosts the biggest concentration of U.S. military abroad.
The detention of Japanese nationals in China and Beijing’s import restrictions on Japanese beef, seafood and agricultural products are also likely to be among sensitive issues on the agenda.
CANADA SEEKS TO RESTART CHINA ENGAGEMENT
Embroiled in a bitter trade war with its biggest trading partner, the United States, Canada is aiming to wean itself off that overwhelming dependence and seek new markets. China is Canada’s second-biggest trading partner.
China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, a year after Canada said it would levy a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles. Senior officials from both sides met to discuss those issues earlier this month, but gave no indication of any looming breakthrough.
The U.S. president has repeatedly touted himself as a global peace broker. Xi told Trump on Thursday that China also played a major role in advocating for dialogue and reconciliation on various pressing matters.
SOUTH KOREA HOPEFUL OF RARE JOINT STATEMENT
“We are very close,” he told a briefing. Two APEC member nation diplomats privately expressed scepticism that any statement would be particularly substantive given fractures in global politics. APEC failed to adopt a joint declaration in 2018 and 2019, during Trump’s first presidency.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang will be speaking this afternoon to a gathering of executives running parallel to the APEC Summit.
Reporting by Jihoon Lee, Ju-min Park and Eduardo Baptista in Gyeongju; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Michael Perry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
