Albanese joins world leaders in giving signal to China and US over trade war

Gyeongju, South Korea: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined Asia-Pacific leaders in calling for a stable and resilient trading system, in a signal to the United States and China to reach a long-term ceasefire in a trade war that has shaken the region’s economies.

But in a break with previous years, the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation did not repeat their endorsement of a “rules–based multilateral trading system” with the World Trade Organisation at its core, as this year’s APEC summit concluded on Saturday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the APEC economic leaders’ meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea on Saturday.Credit: AP

That line has featured in joint declarations issued at APEC summits for at least the past four years, and its absence comes after US President Donald Trump upended global trade by imposing tariffs on almost every country as a negotiating tactic to secure individual deals for the US.

The political leaders instead noted that the Asia-Pacific region stood at a “pivotal juncture” and called for efforts to “ensure resilient supply chains”, in a veiled reference to the Trump administration’s tariff regime and China’s threat to disrupt global access to rare earth minerals used in critical technology.

Reflecting on the tensions between the US and China, Albanese said he wanted to see more co-operation between the two superpowers because “what they do has an impact right around the world.”

“It is in the world’s interest for the world’s two largest economies and powers to engage with each other constructively,” Albanese said before departing South Korea for Canberra.

China will host next year’s APEC summit in the city of Shenzhen, a move Albanese backed despite Beijing only unwinding last year its remaining COVID-era economic sanctions on Australian industries.

“They’re a major economy. They’re Australia’s major trading partner. Australia supported China hosting APEC,” he said.

Saturday’s summit capped a busy week on the international circuit for Albanese, which saw him meet with more than 20 leaders across Malaysia and South Korea. His engagements included a dinner with Trump and multiple informal discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The APEC summit was largely overshadowed by a breakthrough meeting on the sidelines between Trump and Xi, during which they agreed to pause a damaging trade feud that has exposed the fragility of key supply chains.

Beijing had threatened to wield its monopoly over rare earths mining and processing by imposing sweeping new export controls on the industry, in retaliation to the US imposing tariffs and choking China’s access to high-tech chips and software.

Canadian leader Mark Carney struck the bleakest note at the summit, using a speech to APEC business leaders to declare that the world of expanding “rules-based, liberalised trade and investment ... is gone”.

Facing threats from Trump to impose additional tariffs on Canada’s economy, Carney issued an invitation to other countries to boost their trade ties, saying his government was charting a new course “to double our non-US exports over the course of the next decade”.

With Trump absent from the two-day meeting, Xi took advantage of the vacuum to position China as the defender of the norms of free trade and an alternative to the United States as a stable, reliable trading partner.

In a speech to the summit on Saturday, Xi also called for a global body to govern the development of artificial intelligence to ensure it served as a “public good for the international community”.

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