Donald Trump will pursue ‘regional hegemony’ in South China Sea: Chinese academics

Canada’s trade minister said the government’s position on the deal hasn’t changed: the decision on whether to ratify the 12-nation, Pacific Rim pact rests with the Canadian people. Its death knell was sounded by Trump during his raucous campaign.

Latin participants and media commentators at the event observed that there was a real sense that global leadership was passing to China, in a forum that had previously always been dominated by an exhibition of the USA government’s global will. The world is different after his triumph – including world trade. The struggling country that entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 has grown into the world’s second-largest economy. Many analysts are interpreting this as a strategic victory for China. But it must be “fair” trade that requires partner nations to abide by the same standards of living wages, worker and environmental protections, food safety and human rights as we do.

So, it appears, Trump has not repeated his campaign pledge to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement, which entered into effect on November 4.

But Mr. Van pointed out that irrespective of any bilateral agreements between Vietnam and other countries, Cambodia was still “a high cost and low productivity country”. It was supposed to remove 18,000 tariffs on United States exports to other countries and generate additional export earnings of Dollars 123.5 billion.

The proposed budget request for 2017 is 583 billion USA dollars, nearly the same as that of this year.

But another recent study by Tuft University came out with quite the opposite scenario. Those incredible deals at Walmart on shirts made in Bangladesh and Colombia are made possible by trade agreements such as NAFTA and TPP. Economic gains would be negligible for other participating nations.

Trump has vowed to tear up agreements now in place and trash the Trans Pacific Partnership for Asian trade that remains unratified.

China, whose leaders’ greatest concern is domestic stability, is also battling a slowing economy and rampant income inequality at home. Donald Trump is learning that the hard way. If they get their way, the US would find itself dragged further into the quagmire in the region.

Barack Obama was the zombie at the feast, receiving farewells and expressions of hope that his achievements would not leave office with him on January 20. China considered it a blatant attempt to contain its growing economic and political clout.

President Xi Jinping began a week-long visit to Latin America on Thursday, which has raised expectations from both sides of stronger economic and trade ties between China and Latin America. The Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an initiative to build a rail, road and industrial corridor from its southern provinces through Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Taking a page from the playbook of Vladimir Putin, who has been determined to exact a price on the US for its unfriendly policy toward Russia, Xi could similarly show Trump that there is considerable cost in pursuing a gratuitous anti-China policy.

The head of one of Canada’s most influential business groups urged the government to take a closer look at Japan in light of Trump’s stated intention to ditch the TPP.

“Factor one is whether China has the capacity to be leader, and factor two is whether China has the willingness to be leader”, said Chen Dingding, professor of worldwide relations at Jinan University in Guangzhou.

“History”, he said, “has shown us that there is no way out for protectionism”. Shinzo Abe was the first foreign leader to rush to NY on November 18 to greet Donald Trump and press Japan’s case on security and trade. But Trump is very far from winning the game. Though over the past three weeks he has sobered a little, his selection of cabinet members is disquieting. The Korean War technically never ended, and Kim Jong-un’s regime in North Korea appears likely to implode, making China anxious it may wake up one day with USA troops on its border.

But the U.S. leading the development of the TPP also held a strong symbolic message. Trade wars aren’t free, however.

China has already indicated that it is committed to a green economy and, in fact, is ready to assume global leadership on climate in the absence of the US.

For Australia and other USA allies and partners in the region, this presidential election makes it clear that we can no longer-assuming we ever could-take coherent, smart American leadership for granted. Trade means a two-way traffic of goods and services based on comparative advantage.

The runway on Spratly Island, one of five Vietnamese bases in the region, has been extended from less than 2,500 feet – the shortest of any claimant’s – to about 3,300 feet, and continued reclamation will likely make it more than 4,000 feet long.