AFP, Beijing :
President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a Pacific rim trade deal was greeted as a sign of a U.S. retreat from Asia and a boon for China, which hadn’t been included in it.
The Chinese government – a longtime critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – opted not to gloat, however, instead signaling Tuesday a cautious approach to the new U.S. administration and concern for what comes next.
While the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty could boost China’s role in the Pacific, Beijing is more preoccupied by what else the Trump administration may have planned for the region.
As a candidate, Trump made China and trade regular talking points. He vowed, among other things, to scrap the TPP, list China as a currency manipulator and slap an eye-popping 45 percent tariff on imported Chinese goods.
The TPP deal was all-but-dead by Monday, but the other threats still stand – and that is what’s bothering Beijing.
“It could be counted as good news for China that the pressure of TPP is now gone,” said Tu Xinquan, an trade expert at Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics. “However, there is great uncertainty as to whether China stands to benefit.”
Monday’s announcement was the end of a long, slow death for a trade deal
that in some ways defined the Obama administration’s thwarted vision for renewed U.S. engagement in Asia-Pacific.
The agreement aimed to reduce trade barriers and tariffs across 12 countries incorporating nearly 40 percent of the global economy, including Japan, Australia, Singapore and Vietnam, but excluding China.
It also included provisions that would compel countries to comply with rules on labor and intellectual property rights, potentially spurring domestic economic reforms in countries like Vietnam.
The Obama administration pitched it as a way to spur U.S. growth by opening Asian markets and exercising U.S. leadership. Critics, including supporters of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, called it a threat to U.S. jobs.
The plan was popular among U.S. allies in Asia, particularly Japan, the world’s third-largest economy.
Even after Trump made good on his promise to withdraw from the trade deal, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled that he would continue trying to convince the new American president of its benefits.
“I believe President Trump recognizes the importance of free and fair trade and I’d like to concentrate on getting him to understanding the strategic and economic significance of the TPP agreement,” Abe told the Diet, or Japanese parliament, Tuesday morning.
The Diet had just ratified the deal on Friday, despite its dim prospects. Still, it was a crucial part of the prime minister’s “Abenomics” plan to overhaul the Japanese economy and inject new momentum into it after two decades of stagnation.
Officials made clear that Japan would not try to keep the deal alive if the United States was not a part of it. “The TPP agreement will be meaningless without the U.S.,” Koichi Hagiuda, deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
The concern for Japan, and for others in the region, is that an “America first” foreign policy will mean poorer economic prospects and a broader role for Beijing.
President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a Pacific rim trade deal was greeted as a sign of a U.S. retreat from Asia and a boon for China, which hadn’t been included in it.
The Chinese government – a longtime critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – opted not to gloat, however, instead signaling Tuesday a cautious approach to the new U.S. administration and concern for what comes next.
While the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty could boost China’s role in the Pacific, Beijing is more preoccupied by what else the Trump administration may have planned for the region.
As a candidate, Trump made China and trade regular talking points. He vowed, among other things, to scrap the TPP, list China as a currency manipulator and slap an eye-popping 45 percent tariff on imported Chinese goods.
The TPP deal was all-but-dead by Monday, but the other threats still stand – and that is what’s bothering Beijing.
“It could be counted as good news for China that the pressure of TPP is now gone,” said Tu Xinquan, an trade expert at Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics. “However, there is great uncertainty as to whether China stands to benefit.”
Monday’s announcement was the end of a long, slow death for a trade deal
that in some ways defined the Obama administration’s thwarted vision for renewed U.S. engagement in Asia-Pacific.
The agreement aimed to reduce trade barriers and tariffs across 12 countries incorporating nearly 40 percent of the global economy, including Japan, Australia, Singapore and Vietnam, but excluding China.
It also included provisions that would compel countries to comply with rules on labor and intellectual property rights, potentially spurring domestic economic reforms in countries like Vietnam.
The Obama administration pitched it as a way to spur U.S. growth by opening Asian markets and exercising U.S. leadership. Critics, including supporters of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, called it a threat to U.S. jobs.
The plan was popular among U.S. allies in Asia, particularly Japan, the world’s third-largest economy.
Even after Trump made good on his promise to withdraw from the trade deal, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled that he would continue trying to convince the new American president of its benefits.
“I believe President Trump recognizes the importance of free and fair trade and I’d like to concentrate on getting him to understanding the strategic and economic significance of the TPP agreement,” Abe told the Diet, or Japanese parliament, Tuesday morning.
The Diet had just ratified the deal on Friday, despite its dim prospects. Still, it was a crucial part of the prime minister’s “Abenomics” plan to overhaul the Japanese economy and inject new momentum into it after two decades of stagnation.
Officials made clear that Japan would not try to keep the deal alive if the United States was not a part of it. “The TPP agreement will be meaningless without the U.S.,” Koichi Hagiuda, deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
The concern for Japan, and for others in the region, is that an “America first” foreign policy will mean poorer economic prospects and a broader role for Beijing.
