LIMA”•Asia-Pacific leaders vowed Sunday to fight protectionism at the close of a summit upended by US President-elect Donald Trump’s shock victory and virulent attacks on free-trade deals.
“We reaffirm our commitment to keep our markets open and to fight against all forms of protectionism,” said the final statement from the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.
Apec’s leaders made their statement even as President Rodrigo Duterte said he will adopt a foreign policy that veers toward a China-led regional development.
His Cabinet officials also expressed interest in joining the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership instead of the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership.
“We will find ourselves mutually agreeing in so many things and align our foreign policy towards the development of Asia, the strengthening of ties among the countries in the region with China leading the way to economic development,” Duterte said.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said they were placing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in the back burner amid US President-elect Donald Trump’s increasing protectionist policies.
“I personally would like to look at RCEP more closely because that’s the 10 Asean countries, I think. That one, we are more open to,” Dominguez said in a statement on Monday.
Rising protectionism in Europe highlighted by Britain’s exit from the European Union and in the United States Trump’s election was a major concern at the two-day summit in the Peruvian capital Lima.
A key concern were the remarks made by Trump during the election campaign that he would abandon the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade deal that covers 12 regional economies.
Trump had also shocked the global markets by threatening to tear up existing free-trade pacts involving the United States.
The leaders in their statement vowed “to roll back protectionist and trade-distorting measures, which weaken trade and slow down the progress and recovery of the international economy.”
They also pledged to “refrain from competitive devaluation” of their currencies.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly accused China of keeping the yuan undervalued to boost exports and threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator once in office. With John Paolo Bencito
