China’s President Says Government Will Continue Working on Trade Pacts

US President Barack Obama on Sunday defended free trade as fellow Asia-Pacific leaders vowed to fight protectionism after Donald Trump’s shock election victory sparked fears for the future of global commerce.

The Chinese delegation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima said countries including Peru and Chile have expressed interest in joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal it backs.

At a time when much of the rest of the world is suffering from economic slowdowns, the Asia-Pacific region is enjoying steady growth, said Xi, and as such it must lead the way and take strong and coordinated actions to energize the world economy and create new opportunities for global growth.

Arriving at the summit on his last scheduled trip overseas as president, Obama told leaders he looked forward to constructive talks.

While Obama sought to be upbeat about the TPP’s prospects, some experts say Trump’s attacks on the agreement – which he called a “terrible deal” – and his Republican allies’ control of Congress mean it is dead in the water.

China is not part of the TPP but it has been pushing an alternative vision of free trade in Asia under the so-called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which does not now include countries in the Americas.

Leaders then held a meeting on “challenges to free trade and investment”.

The 21 members of the APEC have finished a study for a regional free-trade area but will not discuss it until the next annual summit in Vietnam, Peruvian Trade Minister Eduardo Ferreyros said.

“Openness is vital for the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific”.

“We should firmly pursue FTAAP”, he said in a keynote address. “The U.S. appears as largely bereft of a constructive economic strategy towards the most dynamic region in the world”.

Throughout his campaign, Trump strongly criticized USA free-trade deals, vowing to pull the world’s biggest economy out of the TPP and promising to impose tariffs on imports from trade partners China and Mexico.

Trade rules should be settled through equal negotiation by every side, not one or two countries, and take into consideration the differences of all members’ development stages, especially developing economies, Geng said.

Mexico wants to harness Canadian support for NAFTA and TPP, and after a meeting between Mr. Pena Nieto and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexico’s government said in a statement the pair stated their countries should keep working together “to promote North America as a competitive and prosperous region”.

From Obama down, U.S. officials have stressed that the election has not changed the country’s economic and strategic interests, and that Trump may yet recalibrate his views.

But U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, who is attending the summit here, told reporters Friday that other nations’ political and economic calculus may change if the next administration delays ratification of TPP and send different diplomatic signals.

“There is no doubt that if the TPP fails it will be a huge win for China, politically and economically”, said Brian Jackson, a China economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight. Proposed dates for an agreement have come and gone, but an RCEP deal could be reached as soon as next year.

“Many of those countries and the companies within them are also looking for bilateral and trilateral trade agreements in addition to or maybe even separate from TPP”, Moritz said in an interview.

“Everybody knows there are controversial parts of TPP”, he said.