Cruising for a bruising

Asia-Pacific leaders failed yesterday to bridge gaping divisions over trade at a summit dominated by a war of words between the US and China as they vie for regional influence. For the first time, APEC leaders were unable to agree on a formal written declaration amid sharp differences between the world’s top two economies over the rules of global trade. “You know the two big giants in the room.

What can I say?” said host and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, conceding defeat. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted the failure came down to “different visions on particular elements with regard to trade that prevented full consensus.” Sources said going into the meeting the United States had pressed for the leaders to issue what amounted to a denunciation of the World Trade Organization and a call for its wholesale reform.

That demand was a step too far for Beijing, which would likely get less preferential treatment under any changes. O’Neill indicated the WTO had been a sticking point in agreeing a joint communique. “APEC has got no charter over the World Trade Organization. That is a fact,” he said. “Those matters can be raised at the World Trade Organization.” The spat ramps up the stakes for a crunch meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Argentina at the end of the month.

O’Neill denied it was a humiliation for his poverty-hit country, which was hosting the annual gathering of the 21 nations for the first time. As tensions boiled over, police were called when Chinese officials attempted to “barge” into the office of PNG’s foreign minister in an eleventh-hour bid to influence a summit draft communique, three sources with knowledge of the situation told AFP. Chinese foreign ministry official Zhang Xiaolong denied the incident, telling reporters: “It’s not true. It’s simply not true”.