SANTIAGO – Chilean experts are confident that the upcoming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) will be a commercial landmark for the future and will serve as a platform to boost the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) without the United States.
The summit will be held in Da Nang, Vietnam, in November, with the participation of U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time.
Due to the characteristics of the U.S. president, disagreements are likely to happen, although the sensitive nuclear tension with North Korea might change the approach, experts told Prensa Latina.
Bachelet boosts Chile’s relations across Pacific in Indonesia visit
APEC is a quite complex bloc, considering that its 21 members are not called countries but economies, because Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Hong Kong are part of the group.
Chile will host the APEC Summit in 2019, and although two previous meetings will take place in Vietnam in 2017 and Papua New Guinea in 2018, the change of government in Santiago next year poses a challenge.
While a possible turn in APEC projections is expected, the intention of 11 of 12 signatories of the original TPP is to revive this Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
The TPP is made up of Brunei, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Mexico and Peru. Trump’s first foreign policy measure after he took office was to leave the TPP.
However, the remaining 11 members want to move forward, and contrary to the previous idea, they want to count on China’s support, regardless of Washington’s stance.
Chile, which is the country with more free trade agreements in the world (26), expects to make achievements with the TPP at the APEC meeting in Da Nang.
In addition to the aforementioned countries, other APEC members are Russia, Thailand, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines and China.
In addition to Trump, the heads of State of China, Xi Jinping, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, as well as the presidents of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, and Chile, Michelle Bachelet, are expected to participate in the APEC Summit in Da Nang.
