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PORT MORESBY (Reuters) – The United States and China exchanged ideas on trade, investment and regional security at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Saturday, with growing lines of members suggesting little prospect of consensus.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will address the 2018 APEC Leaders Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on November 17, 2018. Fazry Ismail / Pool via REUTERS
Mike Pence, US Vice President, said in a speech to China that US tariffs would no longer be threatened until China changed its behavior after its chairman, Xi Jinping, warned that protectionism and unilateralism threatened global growth.
Mr. Pence was directly interested in Xi's flagship program, Belt and Road, which China is promoting with the Pacific countries in APEC, saying that countries should not accept debt that compromises their sovereignty.
"We are not proposing either a restraint belt or a one-way street," said Pence at a summit of APEC leaders, the precursor to the meeting of official leaders.
China's efforts to win friends in the Pacific, rich in natural resources, have been cautiously watched by traditionally influential powers in the region – Australia and the United States.
Xi fanned the concern of Western countries at a private meeting with leaders of the Pacific Islands on Friday, during which he launched the Belt and Road initiative.
In front of Pence, Xi said that there was no geopolitical agenda behind the "Belt and Road" plan, unveiled in 2013 and aimed at strengthening an extensive network of land and sea links with Asia-Pacific. Southeast, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
"It does not exclude anyone. This is not an exclusive club closed to non-members, nor a trap as some people have tagged it. "
Mr Pence pointed out that some feared that small countries that join infrastructure projects will end up with a debt burden that they could not serve.
"Do not accept external debt that could compromise your sovereignty. Protect your interests. Keep your independence. And just like the United States, always give priority to your country, "he said, adding that the United States was a better partner for investment.
DOUBLE RATES?
Sri Lanka officially divested its business activities in its main southern port of Hambantota City to a Chinese company last December as part of a plan to convert the $ 6 billion debt into equity. Sri Lanka owed to China.
US President Donald Trump will not attend the APEC meeting, nor will Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet at a G20 meeting in Argentina at the end of the month, raising hopes that trade tensions could ease.
"Protectionism and unilateralism darken global growth," Xi told delegates, stressing that erecting barriers and cutting ties was a short-sighted and doomed approach.
But Pence said the United States would not back down.
"The United States, however, will not change course as long as China does not change its behavior," he told delegates gathered on board a cruise ship moored in Port Fairfax, Port. Moresby.
"We have applied tariffs on Chinese goods worth $ 250 billion and we could more than double that number."
Trump urges China to reduce its huge bilateral trade surplus and radically change its policy on trade, technology transfer and subsidies to high-tech industries.
China has denied that US companies are forced to transfer technology and considers that US demand to reverse its industrial policies is an attempt to curb China's economic growth.
Report by Tom Westbrook and Charlotte Greenfield; Colin Packham and Wayne Cole writing; Edited by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel
