After visiting Japan, South Korea and China, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, continued his Asian tour on Friday (10.11.2017) in Vietnam, where he participated in the opening session of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit, an organization that brings together 21 countries whose economies, together, are equivalent to 60% of the GDP of the entire planet.
In his speech, the American leader abandoned the kindness shown during his visit to Beijing in the presence of Jinping and his wife to attack the "chronic commercial abuses" that, in his opinion, the United States suffers and announce that it is only willing to cooperate with APEC countries as long as "ac"agree on fair and reciprocal trade agreements" given that the trade policy maintained by previous US administrations has cost "millions of American jobs."
In Trump's opinion, the WTO "cannot function properly" if its members do not respect the rules, and denounced that there has been no reciprocity when the United States has reduced barriers and eliminated trade tariffs. "These practices have hurt many people in my country," he said. However, he announced that he was willing to negotiate bilateral treaties with "any Indo-Pacific partner willing to reach a fair agreement on the basis of respect and mutual benefit."
Trump thus brought his 'America First' policy to Vietnam, a strategy that contrasts with the international ambitions that marked a century of American history and which now gives way, according to analysts, to the emerging Chinese power, which is taking advantage of its undisputed economic dominance and the power vacuum to assume the international leadership that Trump has handed out on a silver platter.
Xi Jinping, the all-powerful president of China, advocates precisely the opposite strategy to Trump's: economic collaboration between countries around the world through his international infrastructure project of the New Silk Road that will strengthen Beijing as a new world reference. Far from Trump's arrogant and capricious character, the strategist Xi takes advantage of the chaos of the new Washington administration in international politics to strengthen his international alliances, replacing Washington as a preferred trading partner and emerging, in the words of the Chinese leader, as "a new option for other countries" lacking a world order.
APEC
APEC was founded in 1989 and headquartered in Singapore, It integrates 21 economies that in 2016 represented 39% of the world's population, 60% of global GDP and 47% of international trade.: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, USA, Philippines, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Taipei (China) and Vietnam
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