LIMA, Peru — Several U.S. allies took aim at Donald Trump’s views on global trade, while China’s president made an impassioned call against the sort of protectionism favored by the president-elect at a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders on Saturday. ADVERTISING
LIMA, Peru — Several U.S. allies took aim at Donald Trump’s views on global trade, while China’s president made an impassioned call against the sort of protectionism favored by the president-elect at a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders on Saturday.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is taking place in Peru as world leaders are on edge over Trump’s campaign pledges to protect U.S. jobs by backing out of the not-yet-implemented Trans-Pacific Partnership and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said NAFTA benefits workers and companies on both sides of the border. Still, he expressed concern that the U.S. could be turning its back on a bilateral trade relationship responsible for moving $1 million worth of goods every minute.
“In the face of Trump’s positioning, we’re now in a stage of favoring dialogue as a way to build a new agenda in our bilateral relationship,” Pena Nieto told business leaders.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key spoke more bluntly, saying the “tremendous despair” triggered by Trump’s trade views can’t be allowed to slow down economic integration by the rest of the world.
“Even if the United States doesn’t want to engage in free trade, President Trump needs to know other countries do,” said Key.
He said it’s still possible to save the 12-nation TPP negotiated by the Obama administration by introducing cosmetic changes making it acceptable to Trump.
“I personally think that President Trump will be very much like chairman of the corporation Trump is,” he said.
“He’s a flexible business guy. He’s going to realize he has a role to play.”
