DETROIT – US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Thursday called on Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers to “think creatively” for solutions to overcome a host of challenges from fragile supply chains, a worsening climate crisis and growing inequality.
Launching a two-day meeting of the ministers under a cloud of US-China tensions in Detroit, a city that has experienced the negative impact of “aggressive” trade liberalisation, she urged them to build on recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements to better serve workers and build trade more sustainably.
“We have an opportunity in APEC to forge a new path for our people and for our planet and to build our economies from the bottom up and the middle out, to deliver tangible results for our people,” Ms Tai said.
As they started, the APEC meetings were already overshadowed by the first meeting between high ranking Washington and Beijing officials for the first time in months in a bid to overcome a cascade of irritants.
Trade experts said subsequent talks on the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework initiative (IPEF) – featuring many of the same APEC ministers, but not China’s – would be a higher priority for US officials.
In her opening remarks, Ms Tai called for APEC ministers to work on reforms to the WTO.
She asked them to build on multilateral momentum seen in last year’s WTO ministerial meeting that produced the body’s first new agreements in years, including curbs on fishery subsidies and a partial intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.
The US has long criticised the WTO for failing to curb China’s state-dominated economic policies.
“We have an opportunity in APEC to forge a new path for our people and for our planet and to build our economies from the bottom up and the middle out, to deliver tangible results for our people,” Ms Tai said.
China meetings
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is expected to meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Thursday, his ministry said.
Their conversation in Washington is expected to be followed by a meeting with Ms Tai in Detroit.
The plans, which have not been confirmed by the US agencies, come amid a string of setbacks for US and Chinese efforts to resume dialogue on economic and trade issues, starting with the downing of a Chinese spy balloon in US coastal waters.
These irritants continued through last Sunday, when Group of Seven (G-7) leaders pledged to resist China’s “economic coercion” and Beijing responded by declaring US memory chipmaker Micron Technology a national security risk, banning its sales to key domestic industries.
“It’s significant that China seems now willing to engage at cabinet level,” said Mr Matthew Goodman, senior vice president of economics at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a former White House official who planned APEC, Group of 20 (G-20) and other global meetings.
“The weight is on understanding each other’s positions even if they don’t produce tangible outcomes.
