Amid strong headwinds, Mexican and New Zealand leaders remain supporters of free trade at APEC

Record ID: 78257

  • Title: Amid strong headwinds, Mexican and New Zealand leaders remain supporters of free trade at APEC
  • Date: 19th November 2016
  • Summary: LIMA, PERU (NOVEMBER 19, 2016) (REUTERS) WIDE OF DISCUSSION
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2016 18:47
  • Keywords: Enrique Pena Nieto APEC summit John Key Donald Trump
  • Location: LIMA, PERU
  • Reuters ID: LVA0035940MYV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Speaking Saturday (November 19) at a panel at a gathering of Pacific Rim countries, the leaders of Mexico and New Zealand underscored their continued faith in free markets and economic liberalisation despite unprecedented challenges.
    The annual APEC summit got under way in Lima just over a week after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's surprise victory dashed hopes of the largest-ever U.S.-proposed trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), coming to fruition.
    President Barack Obama championed the TPP as a way to counter China's rise, but his administration has now stopped trying to win congressional approval for the deal, which was signed by 12 economies in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, excluding China. Without U.S. approval the agreement as currently negotiated cannot be implemented.
    Throughout his campaign, Trump strongly criticized U.S. free-trade deals, vowing to pull the world's biggest economy out of the TPP and promising to impose tariffs on imports from trade partners China and Mexico.
    Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto remained a firm proponent of openness while speaking at APEC.
    "I want to to be clear, and emphatic, that I am a fervent believer in openness. For Mexico, it has been a paradigmatic change in its development over the last 30 years. And today we would say we have different crucial points throughout the world where our openness is shown. Without a doubt, North America has the most relevant, important agreement with Mexico," he said.
    New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key, agreed that free trade deals will proceed regardless.
    "Even if the United States does not want to engage in free trade, President Trump has to know that other countries do, and they are going to. They are going to keep trading. New Zealand is going to continue push for an EFTA with the Gulf States. It's going to continue to push for an EFTA with India. I was there three weeks ago. We are going to continue to push for an EFTA with the UK, and with Europe. And we're going to continue to push for better access around the world. And it's an indisputable fact that New Zealand is a wealthier economy and does better because of free trade," he said.
    China's Xi Jinping is selling an alternate vision for regional trade by promoting the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which as it stands excludes the Americas.
    With the fate of the TPP now uncertain, China's talks on RCEP are seen as the only viable path to the broader Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) that APEC aspires to.
    Key connected the dots if the United States pulls back.
    "The reason President Obama did TPP was all about the Asian pivot. It was all about the United States showing leadership in the Asian region. And there were lot of reasons for that. And if you go to the United States, and ask them, within their system, who was advocating for TPP, of course it's USTR as the elite leader of trade representatives, but it's actually dependent on, on the defense department, and they have been arguing very strongly that the U.S. needs to be a leader in the region. And I went to the US for leaders' week about a month or so ago in the UN. And, as I said to the think tanks that we spoke to there, we really like the U.S. being in the region. We think they're great partners. We they think they're great friends. And we think they add something to all of the countries there. But in the end if the U.S. is not there that void has to be filled. And it will be filled by China."
    The Obama administration has warned that the RCEP would not include strong protections for workers, the environment or intellectual property.
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