China, Russia slam US-led trade deal

MANILA, Philippines - China and Russia took swipes at the US-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) even as the Philippines sought inclusion in the trade bloc of 12 Pacific Rim economies.

President Aquino, addressing a business forum on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit yesterday, asked US President Barack Obama for help in enabling the Philippines to join the TPP, which aims to boost trade and set labor and environment standards in the region.

Restrictive economic policies, several of which are enshrined in the Constitution, have kept the Philippines out of the TPP. China and Russia have also not been invited.

“If the whole idea is to broaden trade, making it exclusive actually defeats the whole purpose of why you enter into all of these agreements,” Aquino said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an article he wrote and sent to The STAR on the eve of the APEC summit, expressed support for free trade zones and liberalization of trade and investment in the Pacific Rim.

“At the same time however, the way the confidential fashion in which the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations were conducted is probably not the best way to facilitate sustainable growth in the Asia-Pacific region,” Putin wrote.

“We believe that the strategic road ahead lies not only in increasing the number of free trade zones, but also in joint development and implementation of the best liberalisation practices among all APEC members, taking into account each other’s positions and interests,” Putin wrote. “In this respect, we should continue our course of bolstering APEC’s role as a coordinator of various integration initiatives aimed at developing in the region a common and open market, free of discrimination and bloc-based barriers.”

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is representing his country at APEC after Putin begged off at the last minute, said yesterday that world trade rules should be drafted within the framework of the World Trade Organization, not regional groupings.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also alluded to the potential conflict between regional deals and global trade rules.

“We need to encourage equal footing participation and extensive consultation and make free trade arrangements open and inclusive to the extent possible,” Xi said in a speech yesterday.

Addressing the APEC CEO Summit 2015, Xi said, “Over many years the Asia Pacific has pursued great openness, integration and development, setting a good example of integration including countries with vastly different levels of development.”

“With various new regional free trade arrangements cropping up, there have been worries about that potential of fragmentation. We therefore need to accelerate FTAAP and take regional integration forward. We must make free trade arrangements open and inclusive,” Xi said, referring to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific initiative, which he pushed when his country hosted last year’s APEC summit in Beijing.

His proposal includes all APEC economies.

Regional trade has become another battleground for influence between the United States and China.

The TPP is headed for a tough ride in the US Congress. Obama yesterday urged the 11 other members of the pact to ratify the deal “as quickly as possible.”

Aquino said he was expecting an invitation to the join the pact, which currently represents about 40 percent of global trade. – With AP